DWAYNE SMITH, for so long a certainty in the Barbados team, is among several players making way in a massive facelift or the national team’s opening match of the upcoming regional four-day competition.
A 13-man squad announced yesterday for the February 4-7 game against Trinidad and Tobago features nine players who were not part of Barbados’ disappointing campaign in the just-ended Caribbean Twenty20 competition.
The lone newcomer to this level is teenaged all-rounder Roston Chase, who is rewarded after an outstanding domestic season that was followed by solid performances in trials.
Smith’s omission, however, will likely be the major talking point, especially since he was Barbados’ most successful batsman in the Twenty20 competition in which he relished his new role as an opening batsman.
The 27-year-old Smith, a former Barbados captain and a West Indies selectee for ten Tests, 77 ODIs and eight Twenty20 Internationals, has been a settled member of the national team since his debut in 2002.
If the general feeling is that he has not fulfilled his enormous potential and often gifts his hand with unnecessary cross-batted strokes, he would have won many admirers in the Twenty20 competition for a much more level-headed approach that brought him 156 runs that included two half-centuries at an average of 39.00 and a strike-rate of 156.00.
Only four of the 14 who were in Barbados’ Twenty20 squad feature for the first match of the four-day competition. They are captain Ryan Hinds, fellow batsmen Kevin Stoute and Kirk Edwards and pacer Tino Best.
Apart from Smith, the other significant casualty is Jonathan Carter. The 23-year-old underachieved in the extra shorter form with 14 runs from four innings, but has always been viewed as a batsman with the potential to go on to the higher level and was named in the West Indies’ preliminary 30-man World Cup squad just last month.
Of the other Twenty20 selectees, World Cup bound Sulieman Benn and Kemar Roach were unavailable, and those missing out for the longer form are batsmen Rashidi Boucher, Alcindo Holder, wicketkeeper/batsman Carlo Morris and allrounders Ashley Nurse, Javon Searles and Carlos Brathwaite.
In addition to Chase, those who missed out on the Twenty20 and have been included for the four-day squad are batsmen Dale Richards, Jason Haynes, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kyle Hope, wicketkeeper/batsman Shane Dowrich, allrounder Jason Holder and fast bowler Pedro Collins.
Chase, 18, a former Combermere student, owes his selection to solid returns in the LIME Division 1 competition in which he scored 705 runs (ave. 58.75) in nine matches and captured 24Â wickets
(ave. 21.00) with his handy off-spin. He further pressed his claim for national selection in two trial matches in which he impressed with scores of 136, 47 and 71 not out.
Barbados will start the season against Caribbean Twenty20 champions Trinidad and Tobago who beat them in the final preliminary match of that competition. The match will be played in Trinidad at a venue to be determined, though reports suggested it would be Guaracara Park.
The BCA also announced a Select team to play against Windward Islands in a three-day match starting on Saturday at Weymouth.
SQUADS:
BARBADOS – Ryan Hinds (captain), Dale Richards, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jason Haynes, Kirk Edwards, Kevin Stoute, Kyle Hope, Roston Chase, Shamarh Brooks, Shane Dowrich, Jason Holder, Tino Best, Pedro Collins. Coach: Vasbert Drakes; assistant coach: Emmerson Trotman; Manager: Desmond Haynes;
Physiotherapist: Jacqui King-Mowatt.
SELECT TEAM – Kenroy Williams (captain), Rashidi Boucher, Randy Thomas, Jamal Smith, Raymon Reifer, Jason Greene, Kyle Mayers, Ryan Layne, Javon Searles, Nicolai Charles, Corey Edwards, Miguel Cummins, Rashid O’Neale.
