Rebels In Fine Spirits (6 November 1998)

6 November 1998

Rebels In Fine Spirits

The Barbados Nation

President of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) Courtney Walsh says the West Indies players holed up in England are "pretty relaxed, pretty calm and upbeat".

Speaking from his London hotel, Walsh said:

"We are all here to play cricket and we haven't lost that focus. We are still in the process of discussing various options.

"What I can say at this point in time is that the guys are still hoping to go to South Africa to take part in the tour, because we do think it is important for the tour to go ahead," he told Channel 8.

Walsh said he had spoken briefly to WICB president Pat Rousseau and had promised to get back in touch with him.

"We are going to do everything that we can in our power to get the tour up and running," he said.

Walsh said the issue was one for WIPA and that was the reason he was the spokesman.

"If it was a (Brian) Lara issue then Brian would be out speaking, but it is an association issue.

"A lot of things have been said about the players and what their demands are, some of which isn't true.

"But we have West Indies cricket at heart and the future of it. We are hoping that things can be resolved as quickly as possible."

Responding to the question of the quality of WIPA representation at home, Walsh said it would be difficult for him to comment from a distance on the performance of WIPA's David Holford and Roland Holder.

"The two gentlemen who were down there would have done the best that they can for us.

"The only unfortunate thing I would say from this point of view was that we were unable to send a legal representative in with them because one wasn't able to travel and one was out of the island."

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