Lloyd: Team selection not for cricket committee

Clive Lloyd, chairman of the cricket committee of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), has taken issue with Michael Holding that the committee was sidestepped on the selection of the regional team for the tour of Pakistan in November.

Lloyd, in an email to the board president Ken Gordon, said the matter of team selection rested solely with the team selectors and did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Cricket Committee. "With regards to the cricket committee being 'sidestepped' over the selection of players, my view of this is that the committee should not have been involved in this issue," Lloyd was quoted as saying in the Daily Nation, the Barbados-based daily. "Consequently the responsibility rests solely with the WICB selectors."

Lloyd also sought to clarify Holding's claims that Gordon, upon becoming the president, had changed the terms of reference for the cricket committee, leading to Holding and Lloyd withdrawing. "From my recollection the personnel recommended for that committee by you were not accepted by the WICB," Lloyd stated. "I do not recall resigning from that committee. In that instance, Holding resigned for personal reasons. I was then asked to form a cricket committee earlier this year and Holding accepted the post as one of the members of the cricket committee."

Meanwhile Gordon chose not to engage in a war of words with Holding. Holding was reported to have criticised Gordon on Monday, saying "too many questions have been asked about what he has said and what is actually the case", and adding, "It would be great if that man was no longer around. I would get more involved, and more formally involved, officially involved."

But Gordon stated he will not be drawn into verbal conflict on the matter. "I'm not going to get involved in contentious issues," Gordon told theTrinidad Express. "I will probably in due course issue the facts rather than comment on anything Mr Holding has to say."

Gordon was relieved, though; the WICB had reached formal agreement with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) over the outstanding issues which had threatened several tours involving the West Indies over the past two years. The agreements are the Collective Bargaining Agreement; a Memorandum of Understanding; and a Code of Conduct for players and officials. "It's been ten to 15 years almost in coming because we have been talking about it for a long time. It gives us [the WICB] the opportunity to start afresh again, and we are very encouraged about the support from [WIPA president Dinanath] Ramnarine, to know that WIPA and the WICB are on the same page. I think cricket has to go forward.

"We have spent too much time talking about contentious issues rather than focusing on the important things. Now is the time to go forward."

Looking back at his first year as WICB president, Gordon was satisfied to have completed his main objectives since he replaced Barbadian Teddy Griffith in 2005. "I think we've made good progress. What we have to do is to try and consolidate it, try and break even this year, and not lose money. We are acting on the assumption that the team will improve."

The next step, according to Gordon, is to translate the recent successes in settling the impasse to improved performances from the players on the field on their upcoming tours. "Our focus now," he explained, "must be improving the performance of the team, and doing everything [we can] to do that.

"Coming out of the [development] workshop [in Antigua on Monday], we have had a number of recommendations for training in the Caribbean, and we have to come up with the money to fund that."