Selectors rewarded for keeping nerve

TOM KIMBER rightly got the hugs and the headlines, closely followed by Dave Hooper and man-of-the-tournament Jeremy Frith.

But there was more to individual heroics from our triumphant boys in Malaysia last weekend, there was a studied and sensible selection policy that withstood knee-jerk reactions and sentiment and went a long way to winning us the World Cricket League Division Six.

I think it's worth giving Peter Vidamour, Andy Cornford and Stu Le Prevost a big pat on the back for resisting big changes after the almost calamitous European T20 Championships back in July, when so easily they might have given the boot to players who went on to become key performers in Kuala Lumpur.

It seems to me from beyond the boundary that there was recognition within that T20 is not the sort of game on which to base 50-over selection upon. Rightly so.

They are two different creatures, whether you are playing at top international level or at Guernsey's lower rung on the ladder.

The likes of Lee Savident, so off colour in the Europeans, Gary Rich, so close to the end of a fantastic career, Tom Kimber, not particularly convincing with gloves and especially the bat in the T20, were backed to produce over the longer format, and ultimately they did and quite spectacularly so in the case of Kimber who produced an outstanding innings to rescue the final.

Head ruled the heart when that Malaysian squad was announced, and sense prevailed when there was clear irritation as to the slack nature of Guernsey's performance in the week of crash-bash stuff back in the summer and it could so easily have meant the chop for a few.

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JUST what is going on at Blanche Pierre Lane, other than quite obviously an inability to find an adequate replacement for Colin Fallaize as first-team coach?

Their Channel Islands title-winning team appears in tatters, as is the side which produced some electric stuff to thump North and win the Martinez Cup at the start of this very season.

Poor Saints had just two players that won them the Upton Trophy as they crashed out of the Jeremie last Saturday and, yes, I do feel sorry for them with more talk of players heading for the exit.

It is not their fault that there is a disconcertingly small number of individuals willing to coach increasingly fickle and disloyal senior footballers who often want to move for the most petty reasons while failing to tell the truth why really they want out, which is often that they can see they aren't going to win medals this year by staying around.

It's wholly depressing to see this growing trend of player power and it is time the Guernsey Football Association stuck up for what is right for football as a sport and make it tougher for players to move outside of the June transfer window.

I cannot accept the modern view that you cannot keep a player who is 'unhappy' at a drop of a hat and when he is being given the level of football he signed up to.

Yes it is an amateur game and yes players are unpaid, but clubs cannot continue to be walked over and the old system where a club could oppose frivolous transfer requests should return.

If the player concerned then chooses to stop playing football then so be it.

I'd rather the sport keep a Henry Davey or Nigel Gallienne or Brian Horsepool, men who work tirelessly for their clubs, than a spoilt player.

But back to Saints.

Before anyone says it, it is not the fault of Guernsey FC that the Priaulx League champions are in this current situation.

Colin Fallaize had done them proud for many years and he believed it was right for him to go with GFC.

It's also right and natural that Saints' many island players, most if not all of whom would follow 'Big Fal' to the Moon, want to play at a higher level and in front of crowds which some very notable Blue Square Premier League sides would snap our hands off for.

Even before they placed advertisements in this paper for a new first-team coach, Saints will have known full well that there is a woeful shortage of capable men to run Priaulx League sides as well those prepared to referee them – another very worrying trend.

Most of them who can or who have done it, have got the message: i.e. that it is an increasingly thankless task, as it is being a club president, club secretary or treasurer.

You spend half your life keeping the club afloat and the glory boys out on the pitch stick a metaphorical two-fingers up to your efforts and head off to a new pasture.

My worry about local football is not that Guernsey FC will fail – because it won't and will be the community team we need to not only get behind in the spirit of a Muratti or National Systems Cup for many years, hopefully decades – but that one day before long there will be nobody to oversee a club with the passion and care of a Davey or Hilary Sarre, nobody to wash the kit as old Louis Laine does so uncomplainingly in his very advancing years, nobody to take gate money, no persons to go out and find sponsors and run clubhouse bars.

It seems to me from beyond the boundary that there was recognition within that T20 is not the sort of game to base 50-over selection upon''Clubs cannot continue to be walked over and the old system where a club could oppose frivolous transfer requests should return'