President of the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and former national U19 cricketer Alfred Mentore said yesterday that while he was not in agreement with West Indies coach Phil Simmons’ comments on the selection process for the One-Day team to tour Sri Lanka, he was not sure that the sanction imposed by the West Indies Cricket Board was in the best interest of West Indies cricket.
The WICB on Monday slapped Head Coach Simmons with a suspension effectively preventing him from leaving for Sri Lanka with the West Indies team after he openly questioned the selection process and hinted that there might have been some form of interference from persons outside of the selection committee.
“While I don’t agree with Simmons’ position as an employee of the WICB, washing the dirty linen of the board in public, I don’t think the action taken by them to suspend him is in the best interest
of West Indies Cricket,” was Mentore’s take when Stabroek Sports caught up with the former stylish opening batsman.
“It appears whenever we are going on a tour we always leave on a bad footing. I think the players they are not in the right mode, the timing of the situation is wrong. Instead of suspending him they could have had suspended talks and let him continue on the tour and deal
with the situation afterwards. It will have a negative impact on the new Captain, the players and the tour,” Mentore added.
Mentore feels that the decision will affect the performances of the team as a whole.
“We might have good individual performances by the players but what will be the performances of the team?” he questioned.
Another former player Anil Beharry, who is the president of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) said the way the matter was handled shows the continued arrogance of the WICB administration.
“I think it shows the arrogance of the WICB and their executives and it is also a repeat of what happened which resulted in
the India fiasco. They (WICB) should have called him in for a reprimand but it shows clearly that the WICB don’t want to be opposed. “I think that stakeholders in CARICOM should come together and replace the executives of the WICB with an interim body while we wait on the next elections.
“This is going to cause low morale among the players. Every time our teams leave for a tour something like this happens. His (Simmons) track record as a coach is good. He did a good job to turn Ireland around and he could turn around West Indies if given a
Chance,” was his frank comment. President of the Guyana Cricket Board Drubahadur also weighed in on the issue.
“The coach and managers are part of management, so, in a nutshell, I think the statement came out at the wrong time. Maybe it could have come after the tour but not at the beginning. Personally, I think there’s too much at stake for the players to get involved in the off-field
situation, they should focus on the tour because what is going on doesn’t apply to them directly.”
Former Chairman of the Guyana selection Panel Claude Raphael said yesterday in an invited comment that he thought that Simmons had breached the protocol and confidentiality clause as it relates to the WICB selection panel.
Raphael who has served as a selector for over two decades starting with the late Wilfred `Sunny’ Edun, said the Simmons’ issue was a rather unfortunate one.
“It’s rather unfortunate. I think Simmons has been around long enough to understand how these panels work. He clearly violated the protocol by enunciating how the votes went making it clear who voted for who,” said Raphael adding that it was not the usual thing to do.
According to Raphael Simmons might have been frustrated.
“I detect a tinge of frustration. There must have been some interference which was the main reason why he felt it could not be resolved because the interference was probably coming from higher up. Mr. Simmons was not clearly not confident in having it resolved because of who or whom might have been the persons responsible for the interference,” added Raphael.
Asked if he felt that the WICB was right to suspend Simmons Raphael replied: “The rules dictate that. The rules says that once you violate the protocol there must be a sanction for that.”
