Barbados: Selector Comments On All-Rounder's Withdrawal (2 October 1998)

2 October 1998

Barbados: Selector Comments On All-Rounder's Withdrawal

by Haydn Gill

Mark Lavine's sudden and belated withdrawal from the Barbados team for next week's Red Stripe Bowl has prompted concern from the island's chief cricket selector.

In reacting to the news of the 25-year-old all-rounder's decision to head back to South Africa to fulfil a professional contract, Charlie Griffith said yesterday Lavine could have handled the matter better.

"When a player does that sort of thing, it doesn't say much about his credibility. Some players have commitment and some don't have it. That's part of life," Griffith told WEEKENDSPORT.

"If you put yourself to the trouble of making yourself available and then do this sort of thing ... are you serious about what you are doing?" the chairman of selectors asked.

Lavine, a gifted all-rounder capable of powerful right-handed batting, useful and sometimes brisk medium pace and sharp fielding, informed the Barbados Cricket Association of his decision on Tuesday morning, hours before leaving the island.

It came on the heels of an earlier decision during the Commonwealth Games not to make himself available for the Red Stripe Bowl which begins in Jamaica and Guyana on Tuesday.

"I got a fax from Philo (Wallace) stating that Lavine and two other players would have been unavailable," Griffith said.

"On Lavine's return, he contacted me, both verbally and in writing to indicate his availability. He sent me a fax on September 24."

Lavine, who represents Big B Spartan locally, is returning to South Africa for the third year of his contract with Northwest. It is expected that he will be offered another two-year deal with the same club.

He is now married to a South African.

In Lavine's absence, Barbados' selectors have called up teenaged all-rounder Antonio Mayers, who many believe should have been in the original team.

The 18-year-old Mayers performed outstandingly in the revised 1998 Nortel limited-overs championship in July in Trinidad, but since returning home, he has had disappointing performances for Cable & Wireless BET.

"I am pleased to be selected. I was a bit disappointed when I didn't make it at first, but I had already put that behind me," Mayers said.

"My form has been a bit up and down, but it is still there. I am not batting the way I know I should be, but I have been working on it in the nets," the former Grantley Adams Memorial and Combined Schools North captain added.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)