Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE FOURTH and final practice match in preparation for Jamaica's participation in the regional Carib Beer Series gets under way at Sabina Park today.
It is a four-day affair and although, according to the selectors, it is practice and not trials, with so many players unavailable for one reason or another, a number of places are up for grabs and this is the last chance for the country's young players to impress the selectors.
Going into the Red Stripe Bowl limited-overs tournament, all the players were available, with 10 of them boasting West Indies caps and they virtually selected themselves and the selectors had nothing to do but tick off their names. Regardless of performances during the domestic competitions and during the practice sessions, there simply was no place in the XI for others.
This time, however, that is not so. With Christopher Gayle, Wavell Hinds and Carlton Baugh Jnr. on West Indies duty in South Africa, with Jermaine Lawson still out due to a suspect action, with Jerome Taylor and Marlon Samuels out due to injury, with Ricardo Powell electing to represent Trinidad and Tobago and with Robert Samuels dropped as the captain and not in the preparation process, there are a lot of places to be filled and quite a job for the selectors.
As the captain, Gareth Breese is a 'sure pick', fast bowler Daren Powell, who is expected home from South Africa tomorrow, should also be one, and the others should be all-rounder David Bernard Jnr. who, like Breese and Powell, has represented the West Indies, batsman Brenton Parchment, and fast bowlers Andrew Richardson and Evon McInnis.
That leaves five for the starting XI, another five for the squad of 16, that should be interesting, and the selectors could really have a difficult time making up their minds - especially in coming up with the five for the starting XI.
Although the chances are that both Keith Hibbert and Matthew Sinclair will be in the squad of 16, the selectors, for example, will have to decide who will be the wicketkeeper in the XI, and although it is no secret that Sinclair is preferred in some quarters, Hibbert should be the man.
Although he was far from impressive as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman during the 2002 Carib Beer Series, the 2002 Red Stripe Bowl and the 2003 Carib Beer Series, Hibbert deserves another chance. He deserves another chance not only because he was the standby wicketkeeper on the West Indies team for at least two series before the West Indies pushed him aside and went for Baugh, not only because he was probably treated unfairly but also because, to his credit, he refused to quit, never gave up, and has outperformed Sinclair as a wicketkeeper and as a batsman in the practice matches so far.
Seven from 16 leaves nine, and the other members of 16-man squad could well be batsmen Shawn Findlay, Donovan Pagon, Maurice Kepple, Mario Ventura, Lorenzo Ingram, fast bowler Dwight Mais, left-arm spinner Ryan Cunningham, legspinner Odean Brown and wicketkeeper Sinclair.
The testing time for the selectors will be when it comes to naming the XI, and performances by the likes of Cunningham and Kepple over the next four days could influence them.
Unless Cunningham, for example, really comes good, the selectors may be tempted to go for a batsman like Ingram who bowls left-arm spin and unless Kepple comes good, chances are he will sit and watch one like Pagon.
If the selectors were selecting the XI today, they would probably think about opening the batting with Ingram and then go for Parchment, Findlay, Pagon, Ventura, Bernard, Breese, Hibbert, McInnis, Powell and Richardson.
