Passport clear-up

A member of the West Indies Under-15 cricket team was allowed to travel to England on an expired passport on Tuesday evening.

Lendl Simmons, a cousin of former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies Test player Phil Simmons, was apparently unaware until the day the team was to leave the Caribbean for the Costcutter World Under-15 Challenge that his passport was up for renewal.

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) executive secretary Andrew Sealy confirmed to Weekendsport yesterday that Simmons was only given the all-clear to travel after discussions with top-level officials.

'It has been sorted out. Permission was granted by the Trinidad immigration authorities as well as the authorities in London who permitted him to land,' he said on a telephone hook-up from the WICB's office in Antigua.

Sealy added that the Trinidad High Commission in London issued Simmons with a new passport on Wednesday.

The discrepancy was pointed out to team officials as the team was checking in at the Grantley Adams International Airport Tuesday evening.

Once the problem was relayed to Sealy and Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board president Alloy Lequay, contact was made immediately with the Trinidad High Commission in London.

Conde Riley, chairman of the Barbados Cricket Association's reception, accommodation and transport committee, also played a key role in having the issue dealt with as quickly as possible.

Another problem, Sealy said, was that the player in question had two surnames.

'We did not even know that and it was a problem,' he said.

Platter is the name he goes by even though he is known as Simmons all over Trinidad. He has to be known as Lendl Platter and not Lendl Simmons.

'When we first selected him, he was known [to us] as Lendl Simmons.'

It is the third straight year a West Indies youth team has faced a problem because of an off-the-field happening prior to an international tournament.

Days before the start of the 1998 Youth World Cup, it was discovered that seven members of the 14-member squad already assembled in South Africa, had breached the age restrictions.

And last year, months after a 15-member squad was picked for the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka, officials then realised that each team was only allowed to send 14 players.