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It came as a bolt from the blue for Stuart Broad when he found his name along with James Anderson ommited from the England's Test squad for the West Indies tour. Dejected Broad said that the decision to leave me out of the tour of West Indies has hit me pretty hard.
“I always try to find a positive in the hand that has been dealt to me. To be honest, though, that's been quite tricky this time because the decision to leave me out of the tour of West Indies has hit me pretty hard,” Broad wrote in a Daily Mail column.
Broad and Anderson, widely regarded as two of England’s best ever bowlers with 1,177 wickets between them, were both left out of the 16-man squad for the tour in a shock move as the team looks to recover from a humiliating Ashes defeat.
“The thing I want most is for the team to be successful and it has been my belief through these challenging past few months that I can play an integral part in getting us back to where we once were in Test cricket.”
Broad was dropped twice during the Ashes but was still one of his side’s best bowlers, taking 11 wickets in the final two Tests of the series.
“I could take being dropped if I had let my standards slip but facing up to being overlooked when they haven't is another thing altogether,” Broad continued.
“I hopped on the Tube in London the following day and people were asking 'What on earth is going on?' I couldn't explain it. How do you?
“If anything, that compounds my frustration because if I had spoken to one person who had said they agreed with the decision to leave myself and Jimmy out, I could perhaps begin to understand. Do I believe I warrant a place in England's best team in Antigua on March 8? Of course, I do. That is why it is so difficult to comprehend," the 35-year-old said.
“If I was averaging 100 with the ball recently and had a terrible record in the Caribbean, then OK, try someone else. But I've bowled well there in the past and West Indies are a team I've had pretty good success against,” he further added.
It was Strauss, Broad’s former captain, who broke the news to the fast bowler that he would not be selected for the tour of the West Indies.
“I have to confess that I wasn't expecting the phone call I received from Andrew Strauss on Tuesday that started with him saying: 'I've got some bad news.' That's not what you really want to hear on selection matters, and not something I have heard very often during my career of 152 Test caps,” Broad said.
The reason the Englishman suggests was provided to him was that the team needed “change tack in trying to win abroad”.
Broad is 35-years-old, with Anderson four years his senior at 39. The two are unlikely to play a big role in the future of the side, however their current form remains strong, as evidenced by their exploits in the Ashes.
He also placed doubt on whether he’ll ever view his Test career in the same fashion again, claiming he has “nothing to prove” as he chases a return to the side for the home series against New Zealand in June.
Paul Collingwood has been appointed as the interim coach of England cricket, and Broad added he hoped a potential new selection panel would hold a different view to the one that saw him dropped.
Joe Root was the last man standing among England’s Test power brokers when the drip, drip, drip of ECB sackings claimed Graham Thorpe as the third victim post the Ashes fiasco. The cull of those held responsible for England’s Ashes debacle added the assistant coach to the scalps of Ashley Giles and Chris Silverwood but stopped short of including a captain who was given a ringing endorsement to carry on in the Caribbean.
