Selectors face tough task over starting XI

Jeraine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

National cricket selection committee chairman, Ruddy Williams, says he and his team members are not perturbed by the challenge faced in selecting Jamaica's team for their 2010 West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) President's Cup one-day tournament's opening fixture against the Windward Islands.

The game, which will be played at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium on Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m., will see Jamaica, led by Chris Gayle, Brendan Nash and Nikita Miller, trying to make a winning start, as they seek to dethrone two-time defending champions Trinidad and Tobago, who are expected to feature Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Adrian Barratt.

However, with a number of players in Jamaica's 14-man squad performing well at either the recent Caribbean Twenty20 tournament and the subsequent one-day tournament trials, it is expected that the job of selecting a starting XI could prove to be a problem for the national selectors, a problem which Williams says they are not afraid to deal with.

The national selection committee includes Williams, administrator Ephraim McLeod, coach Junior Bennett and captain Gayle.

"It's good to be in this position of struggling to find a good starting XI," said Williams, who has been a member of the committee since 1999 and has overseen a number of winning campaigns.

"We are playing at home and have a strong 14-man squad, all of whom, with the exceptionof young Horace Miller, are experienced at this level.

"The challenge, therefore, is to find the right combination going into each game and I am confident we will."

The squad, which completed its final set of warm-up matches last weekend, includes a number of players who are either current West Indies or West Indies 'A' representatives, and, by virtue of their status, would be considered sure picks for the game.

They are batsmen Gayle and Nash, spinner Nikita Miller and all-rounders Bernard Jr and André Russell.

Baugh expected to start

With Carlton Baugh Jr, who was recently offered a central retainer contract by the WICB being the only established wicketkeeper in the squad, it is also expected that he will start, leaving eight players to battle for the remaining five places.

Of the eight, leg-spinner Odean Brown, who earlier this year represented the West Indies 'A' and has been consistent since, is expected to join Miller as the starting spinners while exciting 20-year-old batsman, Miller, is expected to carry the towel, and use the tournament to gain experience.

This is expected to leave four batsmen to battle for the two remaining batting positions. They are the in-form Xavier Marshall, ever-reliable Tamar Lambert, the well-established Marlon Samuels and hard-hitting Danza Hyatt, who was one of Jamaica's most outstanding batsmen at the recent Caribbean Twenty20 tournament.

Another Caribbean Twenty20 standout, in the meanwhile, 25 year-old left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie, who seems destined to get the nod over his established counterpart, Andrew Richardson, who has been inconsistent in recent years.

Squad: Chris Gayle (captain), Xavier Marshall, Danza Hyatt, Marlon Samuels, Tamar Lambert, Horace Miller, Brendan Nash, Carlton Baugh, David Bernard, Odean Brown, Nikita Miller, André Russell, Andrew Richardson and Krishmar Santokie.