PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC): A former manager of the Windies team has warned that all-rounder Keemo Paul and left-handed batsman Shimron Hetmyer may have taken a big risk opting out of next month’s tour of England.
Omar Khan, who is also manager of the Guyana Amazon Warriors franchise, which Paul and Hetmyer represent,
said that, while he understood the duo’s concerns, they should have been part of the three-match series that will be the first Test played in a “bio-secure” environment, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the first time that a series is being played under the present COVID-19 situation and, hence, the
players are not sure how all will pan out,” Khan, who managed the West Indies team from 2007 to 2010, told Guardian Media Sports on Thursday.
“I could understand mentally that the players would want to be totally comfortable but, in my personal view, I think Hetmyer and Paul should have gone.”
The centrally contracted Paul, Hetmyer, and Bravo, in the declining selection, reportedly expressed concerns about their health and the well-being of their families, given that more than 281,000 people in the United Kingdom had been infected with COVID-19, including almost 40,000 who died from the virus.
