Red Stripe Bowl: Trinidad and Tobago feel the hurt (20 October 1998)

20 October 1998

Red Stripe Bowl: Trinidad and Tobago feel the hurt

By Garth Watlley

It was holiday time in Jamaica. Heroes Day. But the mood was not bright in the Trinidad and Tobago team bus, heading back down the road from Discovery Bay to their Sandals hotel at Dunn's River. Instead of being on a high, they were having a dose of the Red Stripe hurt.

Some eight-odd overs had already gone in the 1998 Red Stripe Bowl final and they were not in it. And having already been relegated from semi-final winners against the Leeward Islands to losers, captain Brian Lara and his players yesterday had their protests fall on deaf ears.

Added to the dramatic events of the previous two days, the apparent rebuff has ticked off the T & T skipper.

"This shows a lot of unprofessionalism," an aggrieved Lara finally told the Express in his hotel room yesterday.

"Both teams were told the position at different intervals (on Saturday). We met the target we were given."

That information was provided to the T & T team by the match officials but more careful perusal of the tournament rules subsequently showed it to be incorrect. That is why an emergency committee headed by Jamaica Cricket Association president Jackie Hendriks had little choice but to overturn the original decision and declare the Leewards the winners.

Lara and team manager Rangy Nanan met with match referee Hugh Perry to argue against the overturning of his original decision to declare T & T the winners of Saturday's rain-hit semifinal on a faster scoring rate. But they got no good news.

"We said in our protest letter," Nanan told the Express, "that we were going to turn up here this morning and this we have done. Brian Lara and myself spoke to the match referee. And he said that he went along with the umpires' decision on the first day.

But he said there was a change and he has to go along with them, which is wrong!"

The T & T protest challenges the right of anyone but the match referee to alter his decisions.

But it appears that the protest has not been addressed at all. "I had a discussion with attorney-at-law Howard Hamilton, QC, and we did send in an official protest letter. And believe it or not, up to this moment, neither the Jamaican nor West Indies Board have acknowledged that they have received our letter."

The manager added: "The players are very disappointed. We are hurt. Because we were so prepared to play the final. I don't think we deserved what happened to us.

"I said to my players that we are still representing Trinidad and Tobago and we should behave in a dignified manner." And Nanan ended with a comment that could still have implications for this seemingly ill-fated competition. "We did ask him (the lawyer) if we had a case and he said yes, we did."

Up to yesterday, legal discussions were still taking place in both Jamaica and Trinidad but no firm decision has yet been made about the next move.

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