West Indies coach Phil Simmons expressed his displeasure at the exclusion of all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard from the One-Day International squad to face Sri Lanka.
Bravo and Pollard have found themselves on the wrong side of the West Indies Cricket Board ever since they were dropped for the series against South Africa in January this year.
The problems began for the duo when the West Indies team abandoned the tour of India last year due to conflicts between the players, the West Indies Players’ Association and the board regarding the payment structure.
Bravo was the captain of the team during that period and he was promptly sacked from his role and replaced by Jason Holder for the South African tour in January. Bravo and Pollard were also not selected for the 2015 World Cup campaign, and the duo have not played an international game since February this year.
Simmons also revealed that both he and the chairman of selectors Clive Lloyd were favouring the return of Bravo and Pollard, but the vote did not go their way in the selection meeting.
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I think it's disappointing from the fact that I haven't got the best 50-over ODI squad that we can select in the Caribbean.
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"The chairman, Mr Lloyd, he came and he gave an exceptional speech saying that he thinks it is time they are back in the squad and he gave exceptional reasons for them being back in the squad."
"Unfortunately, when we went into the selection (meeting), we lost it 2-3. Him and myself - the captain doesn't have a vote in this - but the captain also gave his views as why they need to be back."
While Simmons was not disappointed at losing the vote, he did not think it was correct for people to use their influence to keep players out of the team.
"That's not the disappointing fact. The disappointing fact is that you can lose 3-2 in a vote-off but there is too much interference from outside in the selection of the ODI squad and it's disappointing for me to know that in any aspect of life (people would use) their position to get people into a squad for in this case, get people left out of a squad.
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It is wrong and I don't like it and that is my beef with the selection of the ODI team.
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The 52-year-old was also squarely upset that he does not have the best possible ODI team at his disposal.
"It's disappointing for me because we want to have our best squad. The chairman put it to us that we need to have our best squad and it's not so. So I'm disappointed about that squad."
The West Indies tour of Sri Lanka consists of two Test matches, three ODIs and two Twenty20 Internationals which begins on 14th October.
Source - Cricket World