Kelly left waiting on selectors for answer

ALLROUNDER Richard Kelly is yet to receive a “proper” explanation why he was omitted from Trinidad and Tobago team to compete at the Champions League Twenty20 tournament in India next month.

“No reason has been given to me as yet. I have been attending training and the selectors are yet to tell me what exactly is the position,” said Kelly yesterday.

The experienced allrounder was surprisingly dumped from the national team for the lucrative India competition last week and complained that no satisfactory reason was given to him by the Trinidad and Tobago Selection Panel.

Kelly said he has been unsuccessful in his attempts to contact selectors Alec Burns and Claude Phillip after Chairman of Selectors, Narine Bideshi provided an “inadequate” answer.

“I saw Alec Burns at a practice match on Saturday and he did not make any attempt to talk to me. Earlier he said he would speak to me at training but when he came he did not make any attempt to address the issue,” said Kelly. The Ceramic MerryBoys allrounder described the experience as “frustrating” since the channel of communication between the players, selectors and administrators is non-existent.

“Right now I am unsure if I would get a proper answer from the selectors.

I am just waiting and nothing is happening.

There should be a proper formal system to address an issue like mine,” said Kelly.

He added that the matter is made even worse by the fact that he sees selectors at training but no-one is seeking to clarify the situation.

“Maybe in the mind of the selectors there is nothing to explain? In their minds I could be the one at fault? Who knows...but I will be patient,” said Kelly. In an attempt to secure a valid reason for his omission from the national team Kelly stated that he spoke with captain Daren Ganga.

“Daren said that the system used was a democratic process and he was outvoted by the selectors. The skipper said he wanted me in the team but the others did not want me and that I had his support,” said Kelly.

Despite his surprise omission from the national Twenty20 team, Kelly said he is shifting his focus to the 50-overs tournament and hopefully can improve on whatever flaw the selectors saw in his Twenty20 game.

“I am going to keep going and just now we will be selecting the 50-overs team. I will try and get selected for that team and go from there,” said Kelly.

Kern Ramlochan
T&T Express