Harper returns as Windies selector

For­mer West In­dies off-spin­ner and coach Roger Harp­er is among four men cho­sen by the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) to be on the se­nior se­lec­tion pan­el for the re­gion­al team.

Harp­er, a Guyanese, will be joined by the for­mer Wind­ward Is­lands bats­man and se­lec­tor Lock­hart Se­bastien, who was re­moved ear­li­er this year be­fore the new se­lec­tion guide­lines were be­ing put in place. Se­bastien re-ap­plied and was cho­sen as on the new pan­el. He was part of the Court­ney Browne-led pan­el that in­clud­ed El­dine Bap­tiste and Travis Dowl­in.

Al­so mak­ing the grade as a se­nior se­lec­tor are for­mer Wind­wards bats­man Miles Bas­combe and Hendy Wal­lace, who served as chair­man of the Bar­ba­dos se­nior se­lec­tion pan­el.

The new pan­el will get to work very soon in choos­ing the West In­dies team to tour In­dia for the twin se­ries against Afghanistan and In­dia which gets go­ing in No­vem­ber.

Harp­er's in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer last­ed 13 years, from 1983 to 1996, and he dis­tin­guished him­self as a bril­liant field­er. His Test bowl­ing av­er­age of 28.06 is su­pe­ri­or to that of Lance Gibbs, giv­ing him the lead­ing av­er­age among all West In­di­an spin­ners with at least 25 Test wick­ets.

Af­ter his play­ing ca­reer he be­came a coach, tak­ing over the West In­dies team be­tween 2000 and 2003 and al­so man­ag­ing of the West In­dies Youth team in 2005. How­ev­er, he was ap­proached by Crick­et Kenya in late De­cem­ber 2005 with an of­fer to take over stew­ard­ship of the Kenya team. Af­ter this, he went on to coach the West In­dies team.