Dear Sir,
It is with great consternation that I read in at least two of the local dailies, statements allegedly made by the president of the Guyana Cricket Board, Mr. Chetram Singh in connection with the ‘Chanderpaul fiasco’.
I think it necessary under the circumstances in my defence as Manager of the Guyana cricket team to set matters straight.
On the morning of Saturday March 29, 2008, the members of the Guyana squad for the match against the Windward Islands turned up at the National Stadium at Providence.
Discussions amongst Coach (Albert) Smith, captain for the match, Travis Dowlin, Shiv Chanderpaul and I ensued with relation to the composition of the team for the game.
Apparently, the national selectors had met and determined that five batsmen, five specialist bowlers and the wicket-keeper would be the match combination.
Chanderpaul disagreed with that and, after a phone call to the chairman of selectors was made, a subsequent decision was taken to go with six batters instead and four specialist bowlers.
Up until this point, neither the manager, coach nor captain was aware that Chanderpaul, a member of the team management mind you, was going to be missing for a day.
The team list was finalized, the toss spun, lists exchanged between teams and the game got underway.
It was shortly after this that Chanderpaul hinted that he was going to Trinidad.
He later went out to bat and was not out at end of play.
When he came in, he announced that he would not be available the next day because of his attendance at the WIPA awards ceremony in Trinidad. Immediately I got in touch with the board president to inform him of this development only for him to tell me at that time, roughly 5.15pm, that he knew about Chanderpaul’s pending engagement.
He, nevertheless, advised that I discuss the issue with the chairman of selectors who said to me when we spoke, that he had no difficulty with Chanderpaul going off to the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) function.
So we have the situation where the Guyana Cricket Board’s senior management knew on the one hand about Chanderpaul’s Trinidad trip clashing with his involvement in the Carib Beer game, a WICB sanctioned match and more tellingly, not saying to the team management, specifically the manager and coach, that he had their tacit approval to leave the team.
Aside from the fact that `Shiv’ himself knew he was not going to be with the team for the duration of the match, what could possibly have prevented the president of the board from communicating his position to the team manager.
That I found this upsetting and frustrating is euphemistic.
The next morning, still smarting from the obvious discourtesy inherent in the whole matter, the coach had to remind me to inform the manager of the opposing team and the umpires, even though we knew that Chanderpaul would have been declared ‘out’ under the rules anyhow.
Contrary to what is being said elsewhere, I never complained nor told anyone that I had no knowledge of Chanderpaul’s absence on the second morning of the match.
As is evident, I had learnt that late the previous evening. I arrived at the Windwards dressing room to speak to the manager shortly before the commencement of play on Day Two and spoke with Mr. Sebastien.
He became very agitated, not because of when he was informed (in fact he was in sympathy with my position) but because he considered the allowing of Chanderpaul to take liberties with a cricket match of that importance, absolutely nonsensical.
Further, he went on to comment about other test players in similar vein.
While I was trying to reason with him over this debacle he declared that according to the rules of cricket, he was not going to allow a substitute player to field for Chanderpaul when the time came.
By the time I was through with him, the two standing umpires had already taken the field and thus I could not have informed them.
Now I take full responsibility for not getting to the umpires soon enough.
But is the board going to take responsibility for putting me in that awful position when they knew before the game started of Shiv’s prior commitment and should have had the selectors apprised of this so that [a] another player could have been chosen or [b] even if Chanderpaul played that he would have batted higher in the order, probably 3 or 4 so that the most could have been gotten out of him seeing that we chose to bat?
Really, the questions to be answered are, why blame the manager period, if alone? Why is Mr. Singh trying to dodge the real problem which is, allowing Chanderpaul to be absent or more to the point allowing him to play knowing fully well he was going to be absent for parts of the match?
What really is afoot here?
As to my dealings with the media, I have made it pellucidly clear to all and sundry that I will say as least as I possibly can to a particular cricket writer, [he will remain unnamed for the moment] irrespective of which media house he represents.
I do not have any quarrel with other pressmen or television reporters as they all could attest to.
The gentleman in question however, has a knack of misrepresenting and twisting what he hears or is given to report.
Further, nothing said in conversation with him – matters which are for private consumption – is taboo.
Many persons – board officials, captains, and coaches- have been burnt, myself included.
Recently, an in-house matter during the last day of the Carib Beer match against the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) at Providence involving young Devendra Bishoo was made public.
Hanging around the dressing room, he learnt that Bishoo was denied a visa to go to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands for the game against the Leeward Islands and overheard Chanderpaul making a statement as to who should have ensured he (Bishoo) got one. Lo and behold it was in the print media’s domain the next day. I am not aware that Chanderpaul gave an interview to this person. In fact he didn’t. I then took the position that this reporter would be persona non grata in any dressing room where I was team manager.
So it was that when the goodly gentlemen approached me about Chanderpaul’s absence I told him that Chanderpaul was unavailable.
I did not think it prudent to give him the reason for Chanderpaul’s no-show or worse, the roles of Messers Singh and Claude Raphael in the matter.
I am convinced that had I advanced any causes, he would have blown the issue out of proportion and caused trouble as he had in the past between myself and the board.
In any event, my refusal did not forestall the journalist from going to press with a totally overblown version of events.
That matters might have still not deteriorated to the point it has could have been averted if the individual whom I was trying to prevent being harassed by the said reporter checked with me before commenting in public based on what he was seemingly told by the individual in question.
That the board president chose to say for all and sundry that it was my responsibility to have conveyed to the media what I knew about Chanderpaul’s absence is neither intelligent nor honest.
To whose embarrassment has the non-information backfired Mr. Singh? Frankly, could you, as board president, tell the public at large when you knew that Chanderpaul was going to Trinidad for the WIPA event? Who made the decision to let Shiv Chanderpaul play knowing fully well that the said player had a prior engagement and hence would not be able to commit fully to the game at hand?
When did it become policy that the manager divulge such information, when it was senior board functionaries who solely made the decision and should have been the ones to release a statement to the press on the matter? Was I being set up?
Having served diligently as manager for various Guyana cricket teams since 1996, and for that run to end on this sad note is disheartening.
But such is life. I will now have the time to dedicate myself more to Berbice cricket and particularly, to work for the further development of young aspirants in the New Amsterdam and East Bank areas.
Yours faithfully,
Carl Moore
Manager, Guyana
Carib Beer team
