Players withdrawing from West Indies squads on two occasions will now have to advise the chairman of selectors on their availability, before they can be considered for future selection.
It may be a case of “two strikes and out.”
The new policy was approved by Cricket West Indies (CWI) at a meeting of the board of directors in Barbados recently and is aimed at reversing a recent trend, where players have opted out of selected squads at the last minute.
A newly-formed Technical Committee, led by CWI Vice-President Emmanuel Nathan, will oversee the policy as well as advise the selection panel on other issues of players eligibility.
CWI Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams said, “we have had a number of withdrawals in recent times and it has severely impacted on the selection panel’s ability to choose a settled squad for international matches.”
The issue of player availability proved a headache for the Courtney Browne-led selection team last December on the Windies ill-fated tour of New Zealand.
Last month, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Darren Bravo and Andre Russell, ruled themselves out of selection for the recent ICC World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, prompting CWI President Dave Cameron to warn that “we’ll probably not invite those players to be a part of Cricket West Indies going forward.”
