Tony Becca, Senior Sports EditorIN A few days, the West Indies selectors made two moves, one bad and one good, one which needed the support of the West Indies Board and which was given after a close vote and one which did not need the support of anyone.
The bad one was not the removal of James Adams as the captain of the West Indies but rather the selection of Carl Hooper; the good one, the selection of Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan for the first Test against South Africa.
The bad one first.
As former players who represented the West Indies, the selectors, messrs Michael Findlay (chairman), Joey Carew and Joel Garner along with coach Roger Harper, should know who is a good captain and who is not.
As people who love West Indies cricket, who appreciate the importance of West Indies cricket to the people, and who want the best for West Indies cricket, it is unlikely they would deliberately select someone who they believe is not good for West Indies cricket.
As people who love the game, who serve the game, who also want the team to win and appreciate what the game means to the people, it is unlikely the board members would do anything to hurt West Indies cricket.
Wittingly or not, like those before them, those who not only turned a blind eye to the behaviour of Brian Lara but also pampered him, that, however, is what they have done.
Maybe the selection of Hooper was expedient. Maybe Hooper got the job because Adams had to go, and as far as the selectors and the board members were concerned, they probably believed, in all honesty, they had no one else to turn to. Lara or Courtney Walsh was not the answer, and obviously they do not see Ridley Jacobs in the role.
It is also possible they reasoned this way: With Hooper all but selecting himself by the weight of his runs in the Busta Series, with Lara a sure pick, had they, for whatever reason, kept Adams as the captain, they would then have had to leave out one of Samuels or Sarwan.
Had Shivnarine Chanderpaul proved he was in form in the semi-final and final of the Busta International Shield, they would then have had to leave out both youngsters - one who did so well against Pakistan and against England, one who did so well against Australia.
The feeling, however, is they selected Hooper because, all things considered, they wanted to win, and they believed, probably correctly so, Hooper, as a batsman and as a captain, would be a better bet than Adams.
As much as cricket means to the people, however, as much as winning is important, Hooper, as nice a person as he is, should not have been selected as the captain - certainly not immediately on his return.
To captain the West Indies is a high honour, and to reward a man who had on so many occasions turned his back on West Indies cricket with the captaincy of the West Indies team is like rewarding disloyalty.
As important as winning is, it should not be all that important that people should sit on their principles, and regardless of the West Indies fortunes in the series, in the long-term interest of West Indies cricket the selection of Hooper was wrong.
Although this set of selectors and these board members may be prepared to turn a blind eye when the time comes, the selection of Hooper as the captain, could, among other things, be sending the wrong signal to the players - particularly the young ones.
Who should have been the captain? As Michael Holding said a few days ago. That should not have been be a problem. The selectors should simply have selected the best team, forget Lara, and pick one.
Now to the good move.
After talking so much about the promising young batsmen in the region, after talking so much about building a team, it was good to see the selectors going for Samuels and Sarwan over Chanderpaul for the first Test.
Chanderpual is a good player and he will be back. The fact, however, is he missed the series against Pakistan, played only in the first two Test matches in England and the first one in Australia because of injuries and he did not perform in the few matches he played in the Busta Series.
While all that was going on, Sarwan and Samuels stepped in, did quite well, and by not selecting Chanderpaul for the first Test, by selecting Samuels and Sarwan, the selectors have spoken. They have said this team will be selected on merit, not on sentiments and, if they mean it, if they stick to it, that can only be good for West Indies cricket.
One bad move, and one good one, but it is not one-one - for the simple reason that one was so bad that it cannot balance the other. The second move was commendable, but even with the best intentions in the world, the first was not in the best interests of West Indies cricket.
