West Indies men’s chief selector Roger Harper, has argued that the number of players losing their central contracts for the upcoming year is a reflection of the lack of constituency in West Indies cricket.
And he believes this has implications for performance standards at the international level.
Eleven players, eight of whom featured in the white-ball format, failed to hold on to their contracts last week, with their performances falling below the required benchmark during the evaluation period.
Harper said it was critical players at all levels of the West Indies system understood the link between their personal performances and those of their international squads.
“It is concerning that consistency seems to be an issue for our players,” Harper said following the announcement of the new central retainers for the year starting in July.
The likes of batsmen Shimron Hetmyer, Sunil Ambris, Sheldon Cottrell and Oshane Thomas were all axed from the list of white-ball contracts, while Roston Chase, Test vice-captain on tour of New Zealand as recently as last December, lost all formats contracts.
Batsman Shamarh Brooks and wicketkeeper Shane Dowrich also lost their red-ball contracts, which were not renewed.
