Cricket – Is the selection criteria during the pandemic too harsh?

Athletes are normally judged and graded on higher standards than others and though hard work maybe one of the key factors of success, performance in competition is often the Gold standard for assessment and often decides the fate of the athlete.

However, the last 12 months have been new to everyone as the COVID-19 pandemic first brought all sports to an abrupt halt before plans were put into action for a return to play and competition in the new environment.

Cricket is one of those sports that returned to play early last year after the initial halt and Cricket West Indies (CWI) recently announced their selection for central contracts and the period of assessment.

In a virtual press conference yesterday, CWI’s Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams and West Indies Men’s Lead Selector, Roger Harper, highlighted some of the key factors which led them to their selection for the contracts.

The period of assessment for the contracts was stated as March 2020 to March 2021.

West Indies were the first cricket team to tour internationally in the new normal environment of bio-secure bubbles and many have praised them for paving the way for cricket to return after about four months of nothing.

But according to Adams, using the 2020 period as part of the assessment, as the West Indies senior men’s team paved the way with a series of international tours, was not a problem in his view.

Adams even pointed to the team travelling with more players and having better preparations for the series than in previous times.

But the West Indies struggled in the initial stages despite their best efforts, in both the Red ball and White ball formats.

They were away from home during a scary time for a long period, travelling to England and New Zealand for the series. At the top level of any sport, it became just as much a mental game as it is a physical game and though the West Indies craved the blueprint for the return to play, their performance did not get them over the line for victories.

Everyone struggled with some glimpses of brilliance and it was even more prevalent when the team moved from England to New Zealand.

After the New Zealand tour, some of the players opted not to continue and go to Bangladesh and the CWI said that they would not have been penalised for their actions as it was a unique and new environment for the players.

The players seemed to be coming to terms with the new protocols of play by the end of 2020 and in 2021, it was also a familiar environment of playing in the Caribbean.

The performances and consistency of the players improved, and victories were captured. The tour to Bangladesh went on without some of what many considered the core players, but included those who were already travelling with the team in the bio-secure bubbles to help with preparations.

This seemed to help those players who were finally able to step on the field of play in Bangladesh to showcase their improvements as well as show that after two tours, the players were finally settling into the game.

Despite the assurance by CWI that the players who opted out of the tour would not be penalised, actions seemed to say otherwise as many of those players were not afforded the chance to play when the home tour began in the Red ball series.

A case can be made for the players who went to Bangladesh and performed and then continued in the home series against Sri Lanka, which came at the later stage of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.

Adams said that in some cases, the previous year was taken into consideration for the assessment and to be considered for assessment, players had to play in half of the matches played during the assessment period.

This left many who have lost their contract with the stats to their names in the assessment period being those of the initial restart when everyone struggled in the ‘new normal’. Since then, they have not been able to return to the West Indies team with the exception of Jason Holder for the home series.

The West Indies were the trendsetters for the return to play and they can once again be the trendsetters for how the athletes are treated for their efforts during the challenging periods. They do not have to follow everything the rest of the nations are doing as they also set the blueprint in the initial stages and many maybe looking on to see what the CWI does with their contracts and players.