Contrasting views regarding the burnout of West Indies cricket players have come into focus ahead of the upcoming three-match One-Day International (ODI) away tour in India.
Former West Indies fast bowler Daren Powell believes a number of players should have been rested.
“I think one of the two Josephs (Shemar and Alzarri), and Seales (Jayden) could have gotten a break and get some rest because the bulk of the bowling is being done by these players,” said Powell.
He indicated that these bowlers will bear the brunt of the bowling “when it comes to crunch time for the World Cup”.
“So I would have given them a break and used some of these young bowlers who are coming through … to get some experience and to look at what you have, the options you have preparing for the World Cup coming up soon,” added Powell.
The former Jamaica and West Indies speedster also singled out middle-order batsman Sherfane Rutherford, citing his participation in franchise cricket.
“I just mentioned Sherfane Rutherford; he is my biggest concern right now because of the amount of work he has been putting in franchise cricket and representing West Indies,” Powell observed. “He is in the ODI squad, but in the T20 he doesn’t get a break.”
The West Indies men’s team has played eight ODIs and eight T20s this year, with many of the players also plying their trade in T20 leagues across the world.
Sports medicine specialist, Dr Akshai Mansingh, concurs that “… a lot of cricket is being played these days, and that’s in two formats”, private and professional leagues, and international cricket.
He noted that a lot of countries are trying to prioritise the number of matches people play, and how many they play in the various formats.
However, he disagrees that West Indians have played “an excessive amount of internationals this year”.
“We had the World Cup earlier this year, and there’ve been some bilateral tours, but I don’t think it’s been excessive,” Dr Mansingh stated.
“But what a lot of countries are coming to terms with is that they’re limiting how many matches their bowlers play in private leagues, not in internationals. So, for example, if you just look at the recent CPL, a lot of the Pakistani players joined halfway through the competition because they did not get No-Objection Certificates from their board, because either they’re involved in domestic leagues or they’re being rested,” he pointed out.
“So to say that we should rest bowlers from playing top countries in the world, I think it’s probably not the best way. That’s not going to help development, that’s not going to help the rest. If you want to rest them, rest them in leagues like domestic leagues,” Dr Mansingh argued.
“(Take for) granted, we have to play the finals, the qualifiers, how better to prepare yourself than against the top teams in the world?”
The first ODI against India will bowl off on Sunday at Greenfield Stadium, starting at 3:30 a.m. Jamaica time. The countries will also be involved in a five-match T20 series.
Having failed to automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup, the Caribbean team must seek a way through the qualifiers, for which a venue has not yet been decided.
The winners of the qualifiers will get direct entry to the second round of the World Cup, while teams finishing second, third and fourth will play in the first round, which is known as the Super Series. The winners of that segment will proceed to the second round.
This marks the third successive time that the West Indies will have to seek a path to the World Cup through the qualifiers.
