Lara replied neither yes nor no

GUYANESE left-handed batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been named new captain of the West Indies cricket team. He replaces world double-record holder Brian Lara, who is at the centre of a controversy along with six other leading players between Cable and Wireless and new team sponsors Digicel. Lara was given until yesterday to respond to an invitation/match tour contract to join 22 other players named last week to attend a live-in camp to prepare for the upcoming home series against South Africa starting on March 31.

The 35-year-old Trinidadian had asked for 24 hours to consider his answer after being deemed the only one of the seven whose personal endorsement contracts with Cable and Wireless did not hinder the WICB from fulfilling their obligations to Digicel in their US $20 million deal. However it was reported yesterday that Lara had asked for an extension of the deadline from 1pm which he was granted. The WICB stated last night that Lara gave a non-commital response to the invitation to make himself available for the First Test, in which he neither accepted nor rejected the invitation.

“In his response Lara put a proposition to the board that could not have been entertained because it would require players to be selected on the team who were ineligible due to the nature of their personal endorsement contracts. In the circumstances the Board have decided that Lara not be included in the team for the First Test,” the WICB stated. Chanderpaul will have as his vice-captain experienced      wicketkeeper Courtney Browne for the First Test in his homeland.

The other members of the team are Devon Smith, Wavell Hinds, Daren Ganga, Donovan Pagon, Narsingh Deonarine, Ryan Hinds, Pedro Collins, Darren Powell, Jerome Taylor, Dwight Washington, Reon King and Corey Collymore. The WICB had originally promised to name the squad on Friday but put off  the announcement to yesterday pending the response from Lara, who has not played any cricket since the VB Series in Australia last month because of a wrist injury. The veteran of 112 Tests has been serving his second stint as West Indies captain since 2003 following his unsuccessful term from 1988 to 2000.

His record as captain stands at 40 Tests, 10 won, 23 lost and seven drawn. The other players who were ruled by the WICB to be ineligible for selection on the Test team because of their ties to Cable and Wireless are Dawyne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Smith. The decision was reached on Friday after attorneys for the WICB scrutinised their contracts with the main Digicel competitors in the Caribbean and advised that Lara’s contract differed from the others since it was “entered into and with the constructive knowledge of the board and with their  blessings.”

The attorneys also informed the WICB that the contracts of the others were “clearly not in the nature of the individual contracts and were signed as members of the West Indies team, while under contract to the West Indies Cricket Board.” Speculation was rife yesterday that should Lara reply in the affirmative to the WICB, he would have been demoted and placed under the leadership of Chanderpaul, veteran of 80 Tests who was named vice-captain of the regional team for VB one-day series in Australia.

He replaced fellow Guyanese Sarwan after a similar situation reared its head prior to the naming of the squad for Australia which saw the intervention of Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell as chairman of the Caricom Prime Ministers Sub-Committee on Cricket. An adjudicator was appointed to examine the contracts and he found that there was no conflict and the players were reinstated after being initially left out. The latest impasse saw the involvement of Dr Mitchell again but he did not have the same success.