Shell Academy on way out

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is moving to shut down the Shell Cricket Academy in Grenada, according to a source. Speaking to Newsday on condition of anonymity, he said: ”The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is frustrated with the running of the Shell Cricket Academy. It is moving to close down the facility. “Recently high ranking officials of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) held talks with Dr Rudi Webster, director of the Academy, on improvements at the facility. “However they got  nowhere and are close to moving out of St George’s to another country.” One of the concerns is the appointment of officials from one particular country to work with the youngsters to the exclusion of the other qualified persons from the other territories.

Former West Indies coach Roger Harper of Guyana was the head coach at the facility in the last term which ended three weeks ago. Recently former Test fast bowler, Antiguan Kenneth Benjamin said in an interview that he wasn’t wanted at the Academy. Benjamin, who was tipped to be the bowling coach, was replaced by Barbadian Ezra Mosely. “The Board is fed up with the way the players are treated and they are not happy with the general conditions the players have to put up with. “The Board has no control of what goes on at the Academy during the term. All they do is select the players and pay the stipend for each player,” the source revealed. “The Board wants to take the Academy away from Grenada and at the moment the two countries  highly favoured are the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre in Trinidad; and the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados.” “Trinidad has a magnificent facility and the thinking behind the move is to re-structure the entire administrative arm of the Academy and remove Webster as the head.

Webster’s headstrong ways and total control of the Academy have also occupied the attention of the worried WICB officials,” the source added. “It is also the thinking of the Board that the Barbados or Trinidad and Tobago facilities will be better for the players,” he said. The Shell Cricket Academy was opened in 2001 as an arm of the St George’s University to assist with the development of the regional cricketers. It is heavily sponsored by Anglo-Dutch oil company, Shell. Australian coach Ashley Toot Byron, who visited the facility over a year ago, was so upset with the running of the Academy, he wrote in a report that it would not contribute to the future of West Indies Cricket unless its top adminisitrator was removed immediately.