Azim Bassarath believes “discussions between senior West Indies players” crucial to know they want to represent West Indies or stick to franchise cricket

A three-member group of independent professionals had been named by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to conduct a comprehensive review of the early exit by the West Indies Men’s team from the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.

Two-time champions West Indies failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage of the T20 showpiece in Australia after suffering defeats to Scotland and Ireland in the first round.

Former West Indies skipper Brian Lara and Mickey Arthur, who is currently the Derbyshire head of cricket, are part of a three-member panel announced by Cricket West Indies to conduct a review of West Indies’ early exit from the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Speaking on WESN TV’s Face of Sports last week, TTCB (Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board) chairman Azim Bassarath, who is also a CWI director, talked about Hetmyer’s World Cup journey missing the plane and Nicholas Pooran’s leadership.

After the World Cup exit, West Indies head coach Phil Simmons resigned from the post and shortly after, skipper Nicholas Pooran also stepped down.

Due to family reasons, CWI decided to reschedule Shimron Hetmyer’s flight to Australia at the request of Hetmyer and give him a seat to leave Guyana on Monday, October 3.

But his agent informed CWI director Jimmy Adams that he would not be able to arrive at the airport in time for his rescheduled flight. Bassarath said when asked about it.

“I am not sure about action, but I think a discussion should be held with not only him but all the senior West Indies players. I think it is time now for the senior West Indies players and the international stars to really make up their mind whether they want to represent West Indies or stick to franchise (cricket), or they don’t want to play cricket at all,” Bassarath explained.

“But I think it is time now for a serious discussion to be held with all West Indies players who really want to represent West Indies and not only to use West Indies to their own whims and fancies but to go on and represent the Caribbean people on all international stages.”

“The administrators and senior management are supposed to engage Mr. Hetmyer and let him know the disrespect that he showed to those officials by not making the time to make the flight. I am not accepting the fact that he missed the flight. I think he didn’t make an attempt to get to the airport and to board the flight. I am not sure whether action should be taken but definitely, we definitely supposed to have a word with him and let him know how serious a matter this is.”

TTCB President, Nicholas Pooran’s leadership mentioned that he is a good leader and other players are gathering around him now. He further stated that he needs some kind of training and advice.

“As we speak right now Nicholas Pooran is the captain for the West Indies white-ball teams and I think it would have been a great disrespect not to give him the captaincy if he agreed to participate in this Super50 tournament. We had a trend we had set previously when Dwayne Bravo became West Indies captain, he was given the Red Force captaincy for the Super50. When Kieron Pollard became West Indies captain, he was given the captaincy in 2021 to captain the Red Force.”

“I think he has gotten the players to rally around him and I think he had a bad outing this time around in Australia and as a young man he will need some sort of coaching and advice and we should not nail him to the cross because he made some errors. I think we need to rally around him and he has the full support of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and we will rally around him so long as he remains captain of the white-ball teams.”