By Neto Baptiste
At age 33, Kemar Roach is still the regional squad’s best fast bowler and could remain there for some time if others fail to take a personal interest in their development.
This is the view of iconic former fast bowler, Sir Curtly Ambrose, who admitted that although there are others with great potential, they may not be disciplined and dedicated enough to put in the personal time and effort required to move them to the next level.
“Kemar is still our best bowler in the Caribbean at the moment and I know very few who would argue against that. When you look at the bowling lineup, Kemar Roach is still our best bowler. There are some fast bowlers around who have got quality, but my thing is that you can’t just sit back and rely on your coaches to tell you everything. You have to be disciplined enough, have to be professional enough when you have off days to go and do your own personal work, and I don’t know if our fast bowlers are doing that or if they are just waiting on the coaches to say let’s go and train. If you want to develop and develop quicker, then you have to put in your own personal work,” he said.
Roach has claimed 231 wickets in 68 Tests and another 125 in 94 One Day Internationals for the West Indies. He has played 11 T20 International matches, claiming 10 wickets.
Sir Curtly said he is particularly impressed with young fast bowler Jayden Seales, hinting that the Trinidadian should be given an opportunity to play more red ball cricket.
“He came into the West Indies senior side after playing just about one First Class game but the point is that he is one for the future and we’ve seen that but I would love to see him play more red ball cricket so he can develop, learn a lot more and gain more experience in that longer format so that when he gets to Test cricket then he is not too far off,” he said.
Seales, who made his debut for the West Indies A in December of 2020 against New Zealand and made his List A debut for Trinidad and Tobago months later in February 2021 in the regional Super 50 Cup. Seales made his Test debut in June of 2021 and has not played for the senior team since August that same year.