PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Azim Bassarath responded with incredulity to claims that there is a plot to remove Daren Ganga from the Trinidad & Tobago team.
The president of the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board was responding to claims from West Indies Players’ Association Executive President Dinanath Ramnarine.
Last Friday, Ramnarine told a media conference that there was a plot among some regional administrators to remove Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and WIPA from cricket landscape in the region.
Bassarath said he was stunned to read that there was ever such a suggestion by the executive of the T&TCB.
“I cannot believe that the goodly gentleman is pointing in that direction,” he said of Ramnarine’s comments. “We at the T&TCB have no plot to remove anyone and we are taking this very seriously.
“If we have a plot to remove someone in the manner that the gentleman is suggesting, then it is frightening to me because the members of my executive are not of that type of people. If they are then, I am very surprised and shocked.”
Bassarath was very unambiguous in his statement and noted the removal of Ganga from the T&T team had everything to do with cricket and nothing else.
“The selectors found that he would not have fit into the T20 mix for the upcoming Caribbean Twenty20 Championship and they simply did not select him,” he said. “They went for a bunch of players who in their opinion would give us the best chance of repeating as champions.
“Daren remains a big asset to T&T’s cricket and I am sure he would feature in the other formats of the game.”
Bassarath however, did not respond to other charges about the removal of Gayle, Sarwan and WIPA.