IT SHOULD have come as no surprise for those following recent controversial statements from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, feels challenged enough to have the behaviour of the Board discussed as an issue of importance by CARICOM Heads of Government when they meet in Suriname next month.
Not only has the Board infuriated the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) by its recent public criticisms of Simpson-Miller, but the prime minister herself has slammed statements emanating from the regional body as being “crude and rude”.
The Guyana government, which has also come under criticisms from the Board in relation to its establishment of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) for administering local cricket, would also have an interest in any discussion initiated at the coming CARICOM meeting in Suriname on what it considers as unnecessary controversial stances by the Board.
All the moreso in view of misrepresentations by the WICB that had to be publicly challenged by the international cricket icon, Clive Lloyd, who currently functions as Chairman of the IMC and special advisor on national sports to the President of Guyana.
It would be recalled that following Lloyd’s announcement of his resignation as a director of the WICB on the basis that once he was placed in the unfortunate position to choose between the Board and “putting country Guyana first”, he had no alternative but to remain in his position to which he was appointed by former President Bharrat Jagdeo and continues to head the IMC.
Surprisingly, in a subsequent statement from the Board, in the name of its president Julian Hunte, Lloyd, the longest-serving captain of West Indies and with a most commendable record of performance, on and off the field, felt constrained to correct misrepresentations by the WICB that he had been replaced as chairman of the International Cricket Council’s Cricket Committee.
PM Simpson-Miller
In the case of Jamaica, Prime Minister Simpson-Miller, who has been urging a resolution to the longstanding dispute involving the non-participation in West Indies cricket of veteran Jamaican cricketer and former West Indies captain, Chris Gayle, felt unjustifiably insulted by the Board’s publicly lambasting her for criticising their decision to exclude Jamaica from even a single test match for the forthcoming Australian tour of the Region.
Even before Prime Minister Simpson-Miller’s angry rebuttal on “crude and rude” behaviour, the Jamaica Cricket Association had dismissed as “disrespectful and out of place” the WICB’s claim that she had it all wrong about the exclusion of Jamaica for scheduled matches for the coming Australia tour.
With the mix of statements by the WICB on Guyana’s IMC and Lloyd’s rebuttal on his continuing position as chairman of the ICC’s Cricket Council, as well as the anger the Board has provoked from both the Jamaica Cricket Association and Prime Minister Simpson-Miller, plus of course, the general sad state of West Indies cricket, there should be much to discuss when the CARICOM leaders meet in Paramaribo for their two-day, inter-sessional conference starting on March 8.