If the choice of a fast bowler who played the last of his seven Tests in May 2002 in-stead of an off-spinner and solid lower-order batsman seems perverse, it is completely compatible with the selectors' recent contrary actions.

Sanford, 27, the Dominica-born, Antigua-resident, Leeward Islands player, is the third substitute necessary to fill the breach for an injured player.

When 19-year-old fast bowler Jerome Taylor returned to Jamaica with a back problem, Sir Viv Richards and his panel summoned left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed to take his place.

They plucked Dwayne Smith, the 20-year-old Barbadian batsman with a first-class batting average of 22, from out of the blue and sent him out after Marlon Samuels' chronic knee ailment once more put him out of the game.

The Jamaican Gareth Breese and the Barbadian Ryan Hurley would be the obviously logical contenders if the selection was like for like.

A story even went the rounds yesterday that Ryan Hinds, the 22-year-old left-handed Barbadian all-rounder, had actually been picked to resume his promising Test career that has been stalled for almost two years.

They will all be disappointed but they should all keep themselves in readiness, just in case wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs becomes the next casualty.

Mohammed's selection could be rationalised as the need for a type of bowler South African batsmen seldom see and even more seldom master.

Smith's seemed based on the promise the selectors have clearly identified and the requirement of a right-handed batsman among a host of left-handers.

Sanford's defies reasonable explanation - as did his sudden rejection while several new or resurrected fast bowlers (Jermaine Lawson, Daren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Vasbert Drakes, Corey Collymore) were chosen.

He earned his initial selection after his first season of regional cricket through 42 wickets for the Leewards in the 2002 Busta Cup, his Carib ancestry and his job as an Antiguan policeman adding to the romance of the story.

Well built and generating good pace off a short approach from a strong action, Sanford took good wickets against in the home series against India (Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly twice, Laxman once).

But he faded in the two Tests against New Zealand and, with 20 wickets at nearly 40 runs each, has been ignored ever since, not only by the West Indies selectors but by Antigua's who did not pick him for last October's Red Stripe Bowl.