Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE SELECTION of veteran offspinner Nehemiah Perry in Jamaica's 13-man squad for their opening match in the Carib Beer cricket series is a surprise to many fans.
In fact, there are those who believe that by selecting a player who was not in the original 16 and who is 35 years old, the selectors, chairman Ruddy Williams, Linden Wright, Courtney Daley and captain Gareth Breese, must have gone crazy.
That, however, is not necessarily so.
The job of the national selectors is a simple one: It is to select the best players, the best team to represent the country, and by bringing in Perry, the selectors may well have demonstrated not that they are crazy, but rather that they are taking their mandate seriously.
In selecting the bowlers in the 16, the selectors, who probably reasoned that fast bowlers Daren Powell, Andrew Richards and Evon McInnis and offspinner Breese were the best available, and that the attack, most times and all things being equal, would therefore consist of three pacers and Breese with support from medium-pacer David Bernard Jnr., also included a fourth pacer in Dwight Mais.
LOGICAL QUESTION
With Powell going down injured the first question, the logical question, is why replace him with a spinner and not a pace bowler.
The selectors probably argued that the fifth pacer available is not as good a bowler as Perry and if that is so, it is a sound argument.
They probably also remembered that the first match is against the Windward Islands, that their batsmen are weak to spin bowling, and that while they were prepared to go in with three pacers and Breese because they believed they were good enough to do the job, with one of the three pacers out, it is possible they are not prepared to go in with another at the expense of a spinner because they probably believe that the spinner is better than the pacer and that that attack would not be good enough - not against the Windward Islands.
The second question is why a 35-year-old veteran instead of a youngster such as right-arm leg spinner Odean Brown.
PERRY'S SUCCESS
Apart from the fact that Ryan Cunningham - a left-arm leg spinner - is in the squad, that Lorenzo Ingram - a batsman who bowls left-arm leg spin - is also in the squad, the answer to that may well be that the selectors, all of whom want to win, decided, and correctly so, to select, not by age but by ability, and that they were influenced by the memory of Perry's success against the Windward Islands and the fact that he bowled quite well during the series of practice matches.
Another reason for Perry's selection may be the fact that Breese is nursing an injury, and remembering that apart from Mario Ventura all the other players are young and inexperienced, that without Perry, Breese would be the only offspinner in the squad, that the batsmen of the Windward Islands are often sitting ducks to good offspin bowling, the selectors want Perry as insurance should in case Breese is not fit enough to play or to be at his best with his offspin.
To bring in an offspinner as replacement for an injured fast bowler does not seem the right thing to do, and in most cases it is not the thing to do.
Based on the skill of the spinner coming in and that of the other fast bowlers under consideration, however, sometimes it is a good move, and Perry for the injured Powell seems a good one - certainly if the idea is to select the best team and if the goal is to win.
