Outspoken and well-respected regional Sports commentator and Analyst, Peter Adrien, aired his views on issues of West Indies cricket while paying a short visit to Nevis on Tuesday.
As regards the latest saga, involving Windies middle-order batsman, Shimron Hetmyer, Adrien lamented: ‘What will be the T-20 world cup without Hetmyer?’
He stated that there may be certain circumstances that are causing the young man to incur the ire of the WICB on such a regular basis and he feels that such circumstances should be investigated and the young man is given assistance where necessary.
He believes that the WICB erred in replacing Hetmyer with Brookes.
“Brookes will still miss the warm-up games. Hetmyer would have been there in time for the playoffs, just like Brookes,” he stated.
He feels strongly that the WICB could have allowed the young man to make it to the world cup and make his contribution and if needs be, punish him when he returns.
He said that the incident will have widespread repercussions for the Board and West Indies cricket in general.
He pointed to the fact that Guyana has just entered into a major investment with the very lucrative EXON MOBILE and the CPL organizers, to promote Cricket and Guyana as a country in a big way, for the next several years. Hetmyer would have been the sole Guyana ambassador at this world cup, to advertise Guyana to the world and now he and Guyana have been denied that opportunity.
‘The Guyana cricket board is not going to take this sitting down, he warned.
As regards the chances of the Windies team in the upcoming world cup. He feels they will be seriously challenged in the qualifier stage, as some of those previously underrated teams have come a long way.
He however believes that they will qualify, but does not believe they will last too much longer in the tournament.
‘Most of those big teams are playing cricket the West Indian way now and totals of 200 plus are becoming a norm.
Our Windies team is playing the game the way the other teams did previously, soaking up a lot of dot balls. With that attitude, they won’t last long’ he surmised.