By-STAFF WRITER
ROSEAU, Dominica, Jun 21, CMC – West Indies head coach Daren Sammy has maintained that his team selection is driven by data and not emotion, and that he has no bias towards players from any region in the Caribbean.
Sammy made the comments during a recent interview on QFM Dominica, where questions were raised about the exclusion of Dominicans Kavem Hodge and Alick Athanaze for the upcoming three-match Test series against Australia.
The 26-year-old Athanaze has played 13 Tests and scored 627 runs at an average of 25.08 with four half centuries, while Hodge, 32, has scored 556 runs in 11 Test matches at an average of 25.27 with one century and three half centuries.
While both players featured in the last Test series against Pakistan in January, Sammy explained that their recent performances did not merit them a place in the West Indies’ 15-man squad.
“I had the analysts dive into the top three teams in the world and the different batting positions, what the best of the top three are doing in those different positions, the roles they are playing, and then we compared them to ours and what we are doing.
“During that last Test World Championship [cycle], Kavem, I think, scored 500 runs at an average of 25. As Dominicans, we want our players to perform well, but we must not get emotional,” Sammy said.
“If there is one thing you must know about me, coming from a small island, coming from Saint Lucia, you know you hear of the talk of the insularity and all these things. It is one thing I will not do.
“You watch my record as a captain, as a coach now in the CPL. If it’s one place you will see every single person from the Caribbean play, it is in Saint Lucia, so I don’t bring my emotions into my decision-making.
“Had I done that, probably Hodge and Alick would have been there as a Windward Islander, but that’s not how I operate. I’m here for West Indies cricket,” he further added.
Despite them being dropped, Sammy said it was not the end of their cricketing careers.
He pointed out that they had featured for West Indies ‘A’ in the recent series against South Africa ‘A’.
“If you notice, these guys just played in the ‘A’ team series, so they’ve not been discarded, just that at this moment, the direction that the team is going, the roles that we see from the data collected that is required to play, they just don’t fit that role at that moment. However, it is not the end of the road for them.
“I think we’re doing Hodge and Alick a disservice by glorifying an average of 25 in Test cricket, thinking that Miles and I and Jamal have some personal vendetta against any player,” Sammy said.
“We are trying to create an environment that breeds success, breeds excellence and we need to keep on challenging, and it shows where our cricket is right now, when players averaging below 35 seem undroppable in our system and that shows how poor our system is, for us to be talking about a 25 average…that will not bring us success.”
CMC rb/25