WICB to evaluate King, staff

Head coach Bennett King, assistant coach David Moore, physiotherapist Stephen Partridge, and trainer Bryce Cavanaugh, the high-priced Australian coaching staff employed just under one and a half years ago, will all come under the gun, when a four-member committee of the West Indies Cricket Board sits down to review their performance.

West Indies have won only one of the 11 Tests, and two of the 18 limited-overs internationals they have played, since King and company arrived looking to end a slump of almost a decade.

The results have not sat well with the Guyana Cricket Board, and their President Chetram Singh followed up his public pronouncements with a request to the WICB to determine if King and his compatriots are really worth the money they are being paid. The request from Singh and the GCB comes in the face of the US$1 million price tag for King and company, and a reported US $15 million loss for the WICB over the last four years.

Being asked to evaluate King, Moore, Partridge, and Cavanaugh are four high-powered WICB directors who have some pedigree in the game. The Committee is headed by former Jamaica and West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Jackie Hendriks, president of the Jamaica Cricket Association.

He is joined by former Barbados captain and West Indies opening batsman Desmond Haynes, who is first vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association; former Trinidad and Tobago wicketkeeper/batsman and Windies vice-captain Deryck Murray, president of the TT Cricket Board; along with former Antigua and Barbuda and Leeward Islands captain Enoch Lewis, vice president of the Leewards Association.

The terms of reference for the Committee are to review the conditions of employment and to evaluate the results achieved to date, and to advise whether in the view of the Committee the results justified the investment. The Committee has been given a deadline of February 15 to hand their report into the WICB.