President of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), Hilbert Foster, is backing Guyanese batsman Shimron Hetmyer to rebound and reclaim his spot in the West Indies team.
Hetmyer and fellow left-hander Evin Lewis were omitted from the West Indies ODI squad to tour Sri Lanka after failing to meet the new minimum fitness standard requirements, outlined by Cricket West Indies.
Foster, in a statement posted on the BCB Facebook page on Thursday morning, said he is confident the Berbician cricketer will emerge from this episode “stronger, fitter and hungrier.”
“It was with a bit of disappointment that the cricketing public of our county heard that Shimron Hetmyer was not selected on the West Indies team to Sri Lanka. As President of the BCB, I am confident that Shimron would bounce back from this set back and would emerge from this stronger, fitter and hungrier than ever to reclaim his position on the team,” Foster said.
“As a public person, I understand how it feels to be in the public eyes all the time and sometimes it does get frustrating.”
Foster used the forum to call on persons to rally around Hetmyer, noting that “I am confident that at the end of his career, he would be rated as one of the greatest ever.”
Non-negotiable
On Wednesday, Cricket West Indies Director of Cricket, Jimmy Adams said irrespective of how productive a player is regarding on-field performances, fitness must go hand-in-hand if they are to play international cricket.
Adams was at the time addressing media operatives in Guyana.
“It is non-negotiable; it goes hand in hand. One of the examples that I use to remind people is that the whole issue of getting fitter players is to reduce injury on field and this one of the areas we have suffered from in the past.”
“We had young John Campbell who went to Ireland and was not in the fittest state at the time, he gets a hundred in the first game and then physically can’t complete rest of the series because (of) not being where he should be.”
“The lads (Hetmyer and Lewis) unfortunately have not met the minimum standard, so hopefully we can get them up to that standard as quickly as possible. We can’t afford to have our best players not being on the park because they are not at accepted fitness levels. I am looking forward for these lads correcting that in the near future and getting fitness levels up to where it should be and out of that making sure we can keep them on the park for longer than we have been able to do in the past.”
According to Cricket West Indies Chief Executive Johnny Grave, Lewis and Hetmyer could return in time for the T20 series if they manage to pass upcoming re-tests.
