Vin­ode Mam­chan

"There seems to be a lot of ex­posed elec­tri­cal wire all over the place and peo­ple are get­ting shocked left, right and cen­tre." The words of Az­im Bas­sarath pres­i­dent of the T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) re­spond­ing to Phil Sim­mons sus­pen­sion by the WICB man­age­ment com­mit­tee.

Sim­mons was sus­pend­ed and will miss the tour of Sri Lan­ka over com­ments he made at a press con­fer­ence in Bar­ba­dos. The for­mer West In­dies all rounder said there was out­side in­ter­fer­ence that was keep­ing all rounders Dwayne Bra­vo and Ke­iron Pol­lard out of the West In­dies ODI team and that he did not have the strongest team at his dis­pos­al in Sri Lan­ka.

The WICB man­age­ment com­mit­tee of Michael Muir­head and Richard Py­bus de­cid­ed to sus­pend Sim­mons and re­place him in the in­ter­im with se­lec­tor El­dine Bap­tiste. Bas­sarath who al­so sits as a di­rec­tor on the WICB said the mat­ter of Sim­mons' sus­pen­sion nev­er came to the di­rec­tors of the board which he found shock­ing. "It is strange that a de­ci­sion is made by the man­age­ment com­mit­tee con­cern­ing some­thing as se­ri­ous as this and it did not come to the board.

When Sim­mons was in­ter­viewed for the post of coach the board had to rat­i­fy it, so I don't agree with the man­age­ment com­mit­tee mak­ing this de­ci­sion all by them­selves."

Bas­sarath added that the main point of con­tention was the fact that the man­age­ment com­mit­tee act­ed in great haste when Sim­mons nev­er at­tacked the board with his com­ments.

"Sim­mons nev­er said where the 'out­side' in­ter­fer­ence came from and it is shock­ing to see the haste in which he was sus­pend­ed. This to me is very strange, they could have called him in and find out where he thinks the 'out­side' in­flu­ence was com­ing from and then go from there. Sup­posed it was com­ing from peo­ple in the pub­lic do­main? The man­age­ment com­mit­tee by there ac­tions is mak­ing it look as if he is speak­ing about the WICB when he talks about out­side in­flu­ence."

On Sun­day, Grena­da's Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Mitchell la­belled as "dis­turb­ing" claims by Sim­mons, of out­side in­ter­fer­ence in the se­lec­tion process.

Mitchell, the Chair­man of Cari­com's Sub Com­mit­tee on Crick­et Gov­er­nance, said any se­lec­tion pan­el need­ed to be "free of in­ter­fer­ence, fear, or favour," and joined with Sim­mons con­demn­ing "any act that un­der­mined his lead­er­ship and the dis­cre­tion of the Board of Se­lec­tors to field the best team."

"It is my view that West In­dies crick­et is for­tu­nate to have a lead­er­ship team that in­cludes head coach Phil Sim­mons, cap­tain Ja­son Hold­er and chair­man of se­lec­tors, Clive Lloyd," Mitchell said in a state­ment.

"The team is now at an im­por­tant cross­roads, and it will re­quire wis­dom and good lead­er­ship to chart and fol­low the right path. It will there­fore take the skill, mo­ti­va­tion and pri­or­i­ties of the men who lead and the play­ers who fol­low, to re­store the team to world promi­nence."

Mitchell con­tin­ued: "I ful­ly en­dorse the sen­ti­ments and po­si­tion tak­en by the Chair­man of Se­lec­tors and the head coach, and I join with Sim­mons in con­demn­ing any act that un­der­mined his lead­er­ship and the dis­cre­tion of the board of se­lec­tors to field the best team."

Sim­mons was ap­point­ed West In­dies head coach in March af­ter near­ly eight years in charge of Ire­land's side. He sub­se­quent­ly presided over a 1-1 draw in a three-match se­ries against Eng­land and a 2-0 de­feat to Aus­tralia.