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Cricketers for the 2003 Shell Cricket Academy. (PHOTO:
Modern Photo Studio)
The Trinidad Guardian newspaper has reported that a leading
cricket official in that country has slammed the West Indies
Cricket Board (WICB) and the Shell Cricket Academy at the St
George's University.
According to the newspaper the president of FCB Clarke Road
United, Baldath Mahabir has chastised the heads of the WICB and
the Academy for being 'inflexible and non-understanding'.
The report stated that the
outspoken
executive member of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of
Control was breathing fire after the WICB and officials of the
Shell Academy refused to grant permission to two of its members to
compete in the important final round of the Carib National Cricket
League Competition.
The Penal-based team was forced to play without former Trinidad
and Tobago youth batsman Kenton Thompson and Guyanese Damodar
Dasrath, two of its top players in its crucial final round match
against Alescon Comets at the Wilson Road Recreation Ground in
Penal.
Clarke Road, chasing Alescon Comets’ 303, was dismissed for
396, still needing four runs to earn another batting point and the
2003 championship.
Ceramic Merry Boys successfully defended its title with 128
points, one more than Clarke Road United which ended on 127.
Mahabir said he had indicated to Dr. Rudi Webster, head of the
Academy in St George’s, that Rev Wes Hall, president of the WICB,
told him that no one will be granted permission to leave the
academy unless selected to play for the West Indies cricket team.
“We as a club would not stand in the way in the development
of our players, nor would we flaunt the WICB and TTCBC rules and
regulations, as such we had no choice but to send our players to
the Shell Academy as requested, and indeed we are proud that they
have been selected,” Mahabir added.
However, Mahabir said the WICB should be more reasonable at
crucial times like this, when the local domestic season is coming
to an end.
Mahabir said the club already had bent backwards due to the in-effiency
of the WICB, as it related to round one of the West Indies “A”
and the India “A” team fixture in the Carib Beer Regional
Series, where the fixture was postponed and had to be replayed,
which forced one of its key players, Gregory Mahabir, to miss
several important matches in the opening part of the local cricket
season.
“When boardroom decisions are made, they fail to consider how
it impacts on the people, whom they are serving,” Mahabir added.
He said the absence of Thompson and Dasrath was a big blow to
its sponsors and to the community of Penal, where cricket is a way
of life.
* Source: Trinidad Guardian Newspaper
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