Cricket sponsors back Dr Webster

SPONSORS Shell have given Dr Rudi Webster a resounding vote of approval to administrate the  Cricket Academy of St George’s Uni-versity in Grenada.

The vote of confidence was expressed on Tuesday at a media conference at Kapok Hotel in Port-of-Spain to announce the names of the latest inductees for the May 16 to August 7 programme. Last year Australian coaches Ashleigh “Toot” Byron and Tim Coyle blasted Dr Webster and the execution of the programme and suggested the discontinuation of the Academy. However when asked about the issue on Wednesday, Andrew Hart, Shell’s country represent-ative said the matter has been resolved. “We don’t believe in looking back. It serves no useful purpose. But all the issues surrounding the matter has been addressed to the satisfaction of Shell,” the Trinidad and Tobago-born Barbadian national said.

Shell’s long term goal was further embellished by Nick Shorthose, the Devon, England native who is the Regional Country Chairman of the English-Dutch oil giant. “Our commitment to the Shell Cricket Academy is initially for five years which we review annually. But we are in this programme for the long haul,” said Shorthouse on Tuesday. Dr Webster, a former professional cricketer who specialises in sports psychology, has dismissed the criticism of him being “unqualified and unaccredited” to administrate the programme. He has suggested their outburst was reaction to differences they had in how the programme should be executed.

The Barbadian, who recently had successful heart surgery in Trinidad described Toot Byron as “an unwilling team player, who lacked interpersonal skills to be properly effective and was confrontational at all times.” “I was ashamed of his behaviour,” Dr Webster has said. The 2003 Academy is expected to open next weekend with former West Indies coach and player Roger Harper, ex-Test fast bowler Kenneth Benjamin and experienced Barbadian coach Darnley Boxhill contracted for the three-month course. Dr Webster shot to prominence during the 1970s and 1980s as manager of the Caribbean Test cricket team under Clive Lloyd when they dominated the international game. At that time Dr Webster said on Tuesday, the regional players were a highly motivated lot. “They believed they were the best in the world and nobody could beat them. Mentally they were superior to the present Test team, hence their superior record,” said Dr Webster.

The best-selling author, who was employed by the West Indies Cricket Board as a “performance enhancer” during the last Australian tour of the Caribbean, said, the men from Down Under had copied many of the ideas that took Lloyd’s team to the top. On Tuesday he expressed confidence that the Shell Cricket Academy will continue to bear fruit in the future as it can compare favourably and ever better than similar institutions in the world. He said he had travelled extensively to universities in the US, examining their sports programmes and culled the best ideas in drafting a plan for the academy. “I think we’ve done pretty well at the Shell Cricket Academy,” Dr Webster said.  “In the last two years, three students have really come out of the blue and have made it to Test cricket.  “I’m talking about Ryan Hinds, Dave Bernard and Carlton Baugh,” he said. Two other Academy graduates, Kerry Jeremy and Sylvester Joseph, have represented the West Indies in One-Day International cricket.