(CMC) ST. JOHN’S Dinanath Ramnarine said the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) unilaterally moved the forthcoming third Test between West Indies and Australia and Regional Four-Day Tournament matches from Guyana to Dominica.
Ramnarine, president of regional players’ union, WIPA, said the WICB did not seek the final approval it required from his organisation to switch the matches from the Guyana National Stadium in Georgetown to Windsor Park in Roseau.
His comments came following claims by Gregory Shillingford, president of the Leeward Islands Cricket Association, seeking to deflect pressure from himself after he was roundly criticised by two leading national figures in the game.
Former West Indies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin questioned Shillingford’s leadership of the game in the sub-region, and former national batsman Zorol Barthley, a former chief cricket operations officer of the WICB, felt he should resign after Antigua was not considered a viable alternative for the Test between the Windies and the Aussies.
“WIPA has not signed off on Dominica being both for Tests and the [regional] matches involving Guyana,” Ramnarine reportedly said on a local morning TV show.
“In fact, we objected to it and we felt that the WICB made the decision and then informed us.”
He added: “We found out before the WICB had informed us and we wrote to the WICB indicating to them that we understand the matches had been moved to Dominica and we asked the WICB to provide reasons for such a move. . .
“We were talking to them right through and we asked them that if any decisions were going to be taken that there will be a discussion.”
Ramnarine said WIPA felt if the matches involving Guyana in the R4T were to be moved, the first option should have been to allow the opposing side to stage the contest instead.
“If the Leeward Islands are playing Guyana and if there is a move, at least you would say, ‘well, let’s play the game in Leewards, in one of the Leewards countries’,” he said. “So we didn’t see the need to move the game and we wondered why.
“Subsequently we saw the prime minister of Dominica basically saying they were hosting the Test match and, again, we raised that with the WICB and then we see the WICB confirm that the Test match has been moved from Guyana to Dominica and we are scheduled to talk to the WICB on the Australian tour on Thursday (yesterday).”
The third Test between West Indies and Australia is scheduled for April 23-27 at Windsor Park.