Lequay tells politicians: Back off

The vastly experienced administrator made the comments following a meeting of Caribbean Heads of Government at their annual summit in Castries, St Lucia on Tuesday.

The regional leaders, including Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning, in addressing the current impasse between the West Indies Cricket Board and the WI Players’s Association decided to appoint two mediators in the ongoing row.

Both Grenada Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell and Dr Kenny Anthony of St Lucia were mandated to work with the warring WICB and WIPA to find a common solution to the problems which have bedivelled the region’s Test team since last year.

But yesterday, Lequay said that he was not in favour of regional politicians getting too involved in the workings of the West Indies Cricket Board and the Players’ Association.

He said that he was reminded of a situation which presented itself in 1976 when Garry Sobers, then the world’s leading allrounder visited Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the face of  international sanctions against the racist regime of Ian Smith.

Lequay said that following Sobers’ visit, Guyana President Forbes Burnham decided to prohibit the entry of the Barbadian superstar into his country, a development which caused a major upheaval in the Caribbean at the time.

And commenting on the burning issue, Trinidad and Tobago’s revered Prime Minister Eric Williams told the Women’s League of the People’s National Movement in 1976:

"If you want to assassinate West Indies cricket make whatever decisions you like. But I will not take any part. I do not like political interference in sport."

Lequay said yesterday he agrees with this view and any effort by the regional heads to broker a deal in the impasse must be in the context of resolving the contentious points between the parties.

"You cannot dictate to either party on the way to do things. You can’t tell the WICB which team to pick. Everything must be done within the framework of how the organisations operate," said Lequay.

He said a good starting point will be when the new president of the WICB is voted in on August 7 in St Maarten.

Lequay said that there is not much outgoing president of the WICB Teddy Griffith can do at this time in the final days of his administration.

But he is optimistic that the new holder of the office will make it a number one priority to restructure the WICB which will make it less susceptible to the pitfalls which contribute to the present controversies.

Because of the cricket impasse an understrength West Indies team has been sent to take part in a two-Test series against Sri Lanka and a one-day triangular competition with India.

Among the top players missing are star batsman Brian Lara, opener Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and bowlers Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards.