Team selector job, especially for international cricket, is full of ups and downs – right from busy schedules, various formats, and franchise games. As the lead selector of the men’s team, iconic batsman Desmond Haynes discusses his experience and other details in an interview with online cricket betting site Betway.
Desmond Haynes has been a selector of the Barbados Cricket Association during the 90s. With his experience in team selection, the cricketer is now eager to give back to his beloved team as their lead selector.
Discussing prime aspects about being a successful selector, Haynes says, “Mainly, it’s knowledge of the game,” identifying talents, and “being a professional.”
The aim of a good lead selector is to select the best players. “It doesn’t matter where they come from, it doesn’t matter what format they’re playing. We just want to make sure that when we put a team out there, it’s the best possible team to win that game.”
As a lead selector, Haynes is all about the team. When talking about what aspects he looks at while selecting international players, Haynes states, it is important to look at the player’s character, their commitments to training, and game knowledge.
Expressing his views on the cricketer’s talent Haynes says, “If someone wants to play cricket at the highest level, their talent has got to be able to produce and do well for the West Indies.”
Talking about the right balance between statistics and gut feeling, Haynes states, statistics are prominent; for him, talent and the cricketer’s character hold high value.
Expressing the importance of stats and the role of technology, he says, “It’s good to find out about their stats and we’re quite fortunate to have the analysts and the technology there to tell us those things.”
As a former cricket selector, Haynes knows it’s a position with great responsibility. The former cricketer says it’s all about the team rather than an individual. However, just like the players, he is also accountable for the team’s victory and losses.
Team selection is a crucial and long-term process, as per Haynes. According to him, “It’s important to give players chances. If someone fails, you have to look at the circumstances: how he failed, how he got out, and so forth.”
As modern cricket gets more demanding and busier than before and as a selector, Haynes is careful about the rotation and rest periods and thinks mental rest is also crucial, and players need to balance it
Commenting about franchise games like IPL and its effect on selections for the Windies national team, Haynes says, “Well, the IPL has a window, so the players are allowed to go and play in it then.
But where you get the problem is with all the other franchises around the world. Then you’ve got to start looking at how the players are going to balance the commitment to the West Indies and also their hectic schedule.
That’s why we want more players vying for every position so that when guys are not available for the West Indies, we’re not scrambling for people to replace them.”
The Windies are currently among the top cricket teams around the world. Talking about the current Windies team, Haynes says, “We’re always going to have talent in the West Indies, we are just a little unfortunate that we don’t have the numbers.”
He explains how less number of cricket academies in West Indies than in countries like India and Australia leads to a shortage of players and affects their rotation during franchise and other game formats and
Haynes says, “I do think it’s important for the ICC to look at finding ways that they can assist countries like West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, those places with limited numbers, to try to find ways to make sure that when they split the pie, some of the smaller countries get a bit more money to help with cricket development.
I think that’s something that is vital if you really want to have competitive cricket worldwide.”
The selector is now looking forward to the upcoming test series against England.
