Report claims board did pressurise players

Tony Howard: his role in Sri Lanka has been criticised © Digicel

Claims by Tony Howard and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) that no pressure was put on members of the West Indies A team in Sri Lanka to play for the senior side in the place of striking players appear to be contradicted by an official report on events.

Howard flew to Sri Lanka at the WICB's behest when it became clear that a number of senior players were not going to back down over their refusal to sign match/tour contracts. His aim appeared to be simple - to sign up members of the A team to fill the void. Several sources, including the West Indies Players' Association, subsequently claimed that Howard had used strong-arm tactics to coerce individuals into signing the controversial contracts. And those views appear to be substantiated by a confidential report submitted to the WICB.

The report, made by a senior member of the tour management, has been seen by Cricinfo, and it accuses Howard of engaging in a "campaign under a guise" to change players' minds.

At his initial meeting with the A-team squad on June 26, all but two said that they backed their senior colleagues, and they signed a letter to that effect and sent it to the board. But in the following days, Howard "went on to continuously inquire about players availability mainly on a personal one-on-one basis and via telephone calls to their rooms. In my opinion it undermined team protocol and Lyndel Wright's position as manager of the A team," the report stated.

It cites one instance where Howard pulled a player to one side and tried to "coax him into changing his position. This to me is unacceptable and interfered with the team negatively." Howard is also accused of "discussing and making it a point of duty to sit around and approach players one on one ... directly placing tremendous pressure on them to change a decision which had already been difficult to make. It was even worse when it was done at the actual game and he went as far as using two players to help in the process of calling on players to Jacqui King's (the physiotherapist) room, and she also facilitated part of the process. These secret meetings were all happening without the manager, coach and captain being aware."

The report added that the players were told to sign "with no prior reading of the contract, nor was a copy given in order to seek advice if necessary."

The report concluded by saying that "all players were affected negatively from the moment Tony Howard addressed us privately on June 26 where a decision had to be made. He basically travelled foot to foot with our team as a silent member from then onwards and did severe damage to our cohesiveness."

The West Indies Players' Association was not available to comment, although it is known that on July 2 it wrote to the WICB asking that an immediate investigation be held into Howard's behaviour in Sri Lanka. That letter was not answered, although Howard has submitted his own report to the WICB and that is believed to paint an entirely different picture, although the WICB is not prepared to make it public.