It was only fair to stick with the guys who did well in South Africa: Haynes

Desmond Haynes, the Chief Selector of West Indies, has shared insights on the team picked for the World Cup Qualifiers set to take place in Zimbabwe in just over a month. 

While there have been question marks surrounding the absence of Shimron Hetmyer, Haynes admitted the southpaw was indeed available for selection, but the team management decided to back the players who have done well in South Africa.  

"Yes, Hetmyer was available. He did send through an email or correspondence to Jimmy Adams, our director of cricket, stating that he was available for the tour," Haynes told reporters at a virtual press conference, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo. 

"What we selectors decided to do was that we've just had a new ODI captain in Shai Hope and he was very happy to express his views about the type of camaraderie we had in the team in South Africa."

"We, as selectors saw commitment, we saw a real change in our approach to one-day cricket, and we thought it was only fair to stick with these guys," he added. 

The former Windies batter also stated that the nation does not have the luxury of ruling out players due to the small pool of players available for selection. 

"I must say, though, that I just want the public to know that nobody has been ruled out of selection for West Indies. We do not have the depth of players to rule out anybody for selection," he said.

Evin Lewis has made him unavailable for selection after the Caribbean Premier League and Haynes believed he will do everything for the betterment of West Indies cricket. 

"The last time we contacted Evin, he said that he was rather busy, he was doing some work at home, and he said that he would not be available till after the CPL. I hope I am right there and not misquoting him. As I said before, we really cannot afford to sideline anyone."

"We are interested in selecting the best team for West Indies and make sure that we appreciate where we are standing in world cricket. We want to improve that, and we want to pick the best players, who are committed, who we feel can play the roles for us in order to get us from the bottom of the pack," he further added. 

The 67-year-old further added that West Indies Cricket are keeping a close eye on Brandon King and Alick Athanaze as the two players who can lead Windies Cricket in the near future. 

"What we are trying to do is to encourage to get a group of players who we can have that can play leadership roles, and we have got our eye on people like Brandon King, Alick Athanaze, who has captained the Winward Islands this year and we were very impressed with his leadership. Also, it did not affect his batting, which we thought was very important."

"We had to be consistent as well. Going forward, what we plan to do is to make some recommendations to Cricket West Indies where they will look at a list of players that we can start moving for leadership."

"I think Joshua would be one of them, and then we have Shai Hope, who is the captain in the 50-over, and there would be plenty more that we would be looking at in the future," he concluded.