WIPA questions Sarwan omission

(Trinidad Express) Even as a Guyana team was trying to settle in Dominica in preparation for their rescheduled Regional four-day opening fixture against the Leeward Islands, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) was again airing its concerns about the “rock and a hard place” between which Guyanese players find themselves.

The standoff between the West Indies Cricket Board-backed Guyana Cricket Board and the government-appointed interim management committee (IMC), headed by Clive Lloyd, resulted last week in both bodies naming squads for the opening match but with different captains – Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the GCB team and Ramnaresh Sarwan for the IMC team.

However, neither man has travelled to Dominica.

According to media reports, Chanderpaul has gone off to play in the Bangladesh Premier League and will miss the early rounds of the regional competition.

GCB president Ramsay Ali reportedly said Sarwan had declared himself unavailable to play for the country.

However, this statement was challenged yesterday by WIPA president and CEO Dinanath Ramnarine at a press conference called to discuss the Guyana situation.

“There is a misrepresentation about Sarwan saying he is unavailable. I have spoken to Sarwan today…I asked him to confirm: Did you at any time say you were unavailable and he categorically denied that he has made himself unavailable.”

Ramnarine followed by expressing further concern about the current plight of Guyanese players.

“This is their livelihood, this is what they do for a living, why should they suffer at the hands of poor administration?”

The WIPA president also took issue with the WICB’s position towards the IMC and called on it not to be selective in how it applied rulings by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The ICC has directed that elections within its national bodies should be free from political interference. The year 2013 was set for the implementation of such a policy.

However, Ramnarine noted that WICB president Julian Hunte and CEO Ernest Hilaire both had strong ties to the St Lucia Labour Party and that WICB director Emmanuel Nathan was Dominica’s ambassador to Libya.

“The president of the ICC is the Minister of Agriculture in India as it is right now. So there is a misrepresentation of what the ICC is attempting to do. What the ICC is attempting to do is something that we will support. But as it is right now, if the West Indies Cricket Board is saying that they want to take that particular position (that there should be no political interference), it cannot pick and choose what position it wishes to take.”

Ramnarine also cited the case of Sri Lanka where a Cricket Interim Committee was set up there (2011) and was accepted by the ICC.

He noted, too, that in South Africa a commission of inquiry was convened to look into a Cricket South Africa bonus scandal. The South African authorities have been warned by the judge presiding over the matter that they if they fail to follow the recommendations of the inquiry, they risk being deregistered under the laws of South Africa.

The WIPA president sees a link to the Guyana case.

“In Guyana, the Minister of Sport (Dr Frank Anthony) has acted in accordance with a court decision and with the approval of his cabinet. In so doing, the Government of Guyana has maintained a responsible distance from the management of the sport… The government says it is an interim measure and I believe them. While Clive Lloyd and I have from time to time shared a difference of views on various matters, the bottom line is that WIPA trusts him and his judgement.”

And using the case of the Antigua Cricket Association, where elections have not been held for five years, Ramnarine called on the WICB to ensure that other errant associations in the region also clean up their acts.

“These associations, unless they get their act together, should be debarred from attending any meetings, from getting any funding, from hosting any games. It would send a clear message… Unless these things are dealt with, I am afraid that our cricket is going to go further and further down a precipice.”