Kieran Powell....a waste of time?

Alternatives? What's on your mind, Trinidaddy? Barath is in dire FC form as well, would be stupid to bring him in.
The batting cupboard is bare. I would love it if they brought back Nash though.

Lendl Simmons and Johnson Charles are in form. They are not test players, but they will give you a fast 60 runs each.

2 posters clearly out to sabotage west indies...Easy Rider (mail)  and Trinnidaddy, chin socaf...

Powell is not a good batsman.  he looks good but he isn't.  he does not have the mental intangibles to score big and consistently.  if he did he would have long established himself.  he cant be counted on. 

you go through 5 tests and 6 innings and you ent even score 250 runs.  how many he mek through India and Kiwi?

then Johnson Charles is worse than Sammy as a batsman...while Simmons has been tried  totally at the test level and failed.  he is done.  no need to go back to him.  to play those 2 is to loose worse than we loosing so far

time for Kraigg..whatever remains of Gayle and maybe Blackwell of the Yard.  maybe Barath also, if he ever catches himself.  maybe he should sell the land rover

If you look at the statistics alone Powell, after 20 tests with an average of 28, is poor. 

However observers of West Indian batsmen, using the last 23 years as a basis, would conclude they take a very long time to get to grips with International Cricket. 

Using, information publicly available, players who have played a minimum of 20 tests and using that point as a comparison including Lara and considering all of the non retired players these are some, non exhaustive, observations.

Only a few batsmen have a significant average after 20 tests and have more or less maintained their averages, Shivnarine CHANDERPAUL (52), Brian LARA (55) and Darren BRAVO (44).

At a similar point Gayle (29), Samuels (29), Devon Smith (25), Dwayne Bravo (33) and Sarwan (39). It is only Gayle who have had any significant improvement to his average and had a career changing decision been made after 20 tests he would not have gone on to average 42, 79 tests later! 

Campbell averaged 40 after 20 tests but after playing 52 tests, he averaged a meager 32.

His opening partner Williams, except after the second innings of his second test, never averaged above 28 and after 31 tests ended with an average of 24!

So Powell is not an exception, or is he?

From my limited observations, I totally agree Charles should never get anywhere near to test Cricket and his comparison to Sammy seems reasonable.

recent phenomena is not definitive phenomena.  west indian batsmen in the past did better.

international cricket did not phase young west indian batsmen.  after getting a grip they took it by the scruff.

current west indian batsmen are less talented than those of the past.  and bad administration has an incalculably negative effect on he overall fortune of the team...selection in particular appears to wallop current west indies chances

I do not disagree with those sentiments, from my limited understanding especially of the Administration.

However that applies to all players in the last 23 years and the statistics show Powell is not alone, so to single him out seems unjustified.

He is no different to Gayle, Samuels and the rest at the same point in their careers.

In fact West Indians should be more concerned, that after 51 tests, Samules averages a poor 35. So is it worth carrying on with him?

The issue of the standards is one which affect all so they are all on par from that point of view. 

The problem is, our regional/domestic and high-school games aren't well organised or competitive. There is no one averaging specacularly on the local levels, aside from Devon Smith, and we all know how useless he is at international levels.

You can identify star players at an early age by their domestic averages. Maths don't lie. But our selection pool is rife with players with a 20-35 average.

Do we keep sticking with Powell? Do we open with Paint and Barath?

Are there any Jamaicans on this forum? What's the domestic pool in Jamaica look like?

look here!  west indies had a long standing problem...small windows of exposure with which to judge players for selection.

by 1966 annual regional tournament was established yet that was not as much as was the case in the developed countries and larger entities like India.  yet west indian selectors had to pick better players from the heap.

if one looks one will see Richie Richardson for example having scored but 1 ton before selection to the test team.  and if we go further back we will see the same or less with lots of players.

but for a long time west indian selectors were expert in ferreting out quality players from little exposure and record.  wes hall was 19 when he was picked for england 1957.  Nurse but especially Butcher and Kanhai had coincided with some irregular regionals and had scored.  But Collie Smith came straight out of Yardie domestic cricket


if over the last 23 years we have trends we had not see before we have to look to see why thats alll

Certainly look at the underlying reasons and discuss and share your views.

However Powell should not be singled out in my view.

I do, however, appreciate the background to all of this.