Hall: It's by the vote

Jeff Broomes was replaced as manager of the West Indies team to next January's Youth World Cup in New Zealand by "a simple, democratic vote", West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Reverend Wes Hall said yesterday.

"Every single position in West Indies cricket, from board president, to captain, to coach, to manager, is decided by the democratic process with representatives of the six member territories, who themselves were democratically elected, casting their vote," Hall explained.

The WICB directors elected Jamaican Courtney Daley over Barbadian Broomes at their meeting in Antigua last weekend. Hall said that all the positions filled at the meeting - the retention of Carl Hooper on the selectors' recommendation for the tours of Sri Lanka and Pakistan and Daley, coach Gus Logie and physiotherapist Dave Cumberbatch for the Youth World Cup - were "by the democratic process".

Broomes, deputy principal at The St Michael School, managed the successful West Indies Under-19 team on its tour of England in July and August. He had replaced Vincentian Alfred Bynoe who was in charge of the team to the previous Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka in January, 1999.

Daley, 51, who played for Jamaica as a left-arm spinner in the 1970s, was manager of the Jamaica team to the recent West Indies Under-19 tournament in Guyana.

Hall noted that the dismissal of senior West Indies team manager Ricky Skerritt last May was overturned by the board because it was not done by the approved, democratic process. It led to the resignation of Hall,s predecessor, Pat Rousseau, and his vice-president Clarvis Joseph.

"My aim is to establish a cadre of suitably qualified personnel from whom the board can choose its various managers and other team officials," Hall said. "But, in the final analysis, the board still has to vote for some one."