Time to put house in order (28 April 1999)

28 April 1999

Time to put house in order

Garth Wattley

Quite frankly it's an accident waiting to happen. Someone is going to be seriously injured or killed."

Stephen Camacho, Chief Executive Officer of the West Indies Cricket Board was still trying to assess the damage and future prospects yesterday following the crowd disturbances that marred the latter part of the just-concluded Cable and Wireless One-day International series between the West Indies and Australia.

But the WICB chief executive is not claiming to have the answers to the problems that resulted in the ground invasion at Bourda in Guyana in game five and the bottle-pelting at Kensington Oval, Barbados in game seven.

"I can't say that I have the panacea for all the ills," Camacho told the Express yesterday.

However, Camacho and the rest of the WICB hierarchy are hoping that workable solutions can be found when the board meets at its annual general meeting in Antigua next weekend.

"There is no easy solution. It needs a lot of hard work. We did a lot of hard work with security in Barbados. But we were defeated by bottle-throwing." Some of the measures already being discussed are the erection of high fences, public education and only allowing the use of plastic bottles at all grounds.

Camacho described the bottle-throwing incident at Kensington Oval as part of a very sad chapter in West Indies cricket that had marred an extremely successful tour by Australia. He said the public should realise that the two incidents in Guyana and Barbados had caused immeasurable worldwide damage to the reputation of West Indies cricket.

Camacho said that while the trouble in Bridgetown had been resolved in the short term by the Australians allowing local hero Campbell to be reinstated, this precedent could have far reaching repercussions in the future.

"If we were under Fifa, those grounds would be banned for a certain amount of time and the host country would be fined a considerable amount. We have to put our house in order if we are to continue as major international sporting hosts. "It certainly will have a long-term impact if we don't deal with the matter in the short term," Camacho said, "I don't think it will have an impact in the short term."

What is likely to have an impact immediately however, is the unexpected retirement of Carl Hooper.

Hooper, who announced his retirement from the international game on Saturday afternoon, following the sixth ODI, has been replaced by Jamaican youngster Ricardo Powell. However, according to Camacho, Hooper has not yet stated the fact of his retirement in writing. But there seems to be no chance of a change of heart by the 32-year-old allrounder.

In an interview with the Weekend Independent, Hooper said, "I have made a decision. There is no chance that I will change my mind no matter what anyone may say." Hooper also reportedly said that his decision was not a hasty one.

"I was considering to retire first after the last Test match in Antigua. But then I thought about the prestige of the World Cup," he said. However, the talented but inconsistent strokemaker said he could not find the desire to stay on even that long. "The timing I know was bad but I had to be honest with myself and Brian (Lara) needed to have ten men with him giving 100 per cent not nine and one just giving 80 per cent or less."

The regional team will leave Barbados on Sunday evening for the World Cup. It is a squad that has several members, including captain Brian Lara (damaged wrist), key batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul (flu) and allrounder Phil Simmons (groin strain) who are ailing. But Camacho said while medicals were done on the players, no fitness tests were carried out.

"We are caught between two stools. Fellows have had a very hard series. And I don't think we have a great compliment to choose (potential replacements) from," Camacho said. But the CEO added that the players have been assessed by both the selectors and the management team.

West Indies will have four warm-up matches before their opening engagement against one of the tournament favourites, Pakistan on May 16.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)