Aanensen: TTCB CEO must fix selection drama

TT Cricket Board CEO Suruj 
Ragoonath.
TT Cricket Board CEO Suruj Ragoonath.

JELANI BECKLES

FORMER CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board Bruce Aanensen said the communication within the TT Cricket Board (TTCB) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) leaves a lot to be desired currently.

National batsman Jeremy Solozano was left embarrassed by the TTCB following poor communication between him and the TTCB selectors. The left-handed batsman was axed as a replacement player for the ongoing Regional Super50 but no one told him that.

An eager Solozano was on his way to Couva to collect his uniform on Tuesday at the TTCB office, but after calling TTCB Cricket Operations Officer Dudnath Ramkessoon to tell him he was on his way, he was told he was no longer selected. Solozano said he later received a call from chairman of the TT selection panel Raphick Jumadeen who told him he was replaced but to keep working hard.

Efforts to contact Jumadeen over the past few days have been unsuccessful as calls to his cellphone have been unanswered. Fellow selector Tony Gray declined to comment on the issue, simply stating, “That is a question for Jumadeen.”

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Aanensen said he is baffled that the TTCB would select then drop Solozano without informing him.

The former CWI CEO said this can affect Solozano’s mental state. “I can’t believe that in this day and age with the amount of communication channels available that they could screw up this young boy’s career...How do you do that to a 22 year old? That poor fellah must be so confused now, he don’t know where to turn,” Aanensen said.

The situation involving Solozano is not the first time a lack of effective communication came into question this season.

Prior to the start of the Regional Super50 tournament, there was a mix-up between Darren Bravo and the TT selectors which led to Bravo being left out of the Super50 squad.

Aanensen said he is confused by the communication lines within the TTCB. He said selectors and players are not supposed to have much communication in terms of team selection, saying that the CEO of the TTCB must play a more active role.

Aanensen said, “What I fail to understand both at the West Indies level and at the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board level is why are players dealing with selectors. Selectors select the team. When I was at the West Indies Cricket Board, the selectors selected the team (and) they brought the team to me and I sat down with them and we discussed the selection and so on, and then we announced the team. Selectors don’t go and talk to players and so on.”

Aanensen added that TTCB CEO Suruj Ragoonath has to take charge. “If the selectors have questions about players, they should come to the board, and the board has a CEO (in) Suruj Ragoonath. If you (selectors) have to find out if players are available or not available or if questions are to be asked, to me that is where it should go — through the CEO. They have the lines totally and completing screwed up in West Indies cricket and in TT cricket. You have a CEO, the CEO is supposed to be the head man running cricket. Coaches supposed to report to the CEO, selectors supposed to report to the CEO. I am not saying that they (selectors) should not any interface with the players, but I am saying that interface needs to be related back to the CEO.”

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