BRIDGETOWN, CMC – Media reports in Barbados indicated that former chairman of the West Indies selection panel, Courtney Browne had reached an out-of-court settlements with Cricket West Indies over his termination from the position four years ago.
The Weekend Nation newspaper reported that Browne will receive about U.S. $75 000 from the settlement of the wrongful dismissal suit he filed against CWI and the payment of all legal costs.
Browne, a former Barbados captain and West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman, is still undergoing rehabilitation after suffering serious injuries in a car crash in December 2019.
Anthony Astaphan, attorney for Browne, said his client was happy with the outcome and the matter had finally come to an end.
“He thinks it was an inevitable end, and Mr Browne is extremely grateful to the new president (Dr Kishore Shallow) and attorneys for CWI in taking a reasonable and sensible approach to the matter,” he said.
The selection panel, comprising Browne, as well as former Leeward Islands and West Indies pacer Eldine Baptiste, former Windward Islands batsman Lockhart Sebastien, and former Guyana and West Indies batsman Travis Dowlin, were terminated on April 10, 2019, about midway into their term.
The termination came soon after Ricky Skerritt and Shallow assumed the posts of president and vice-president respectively, of CWI in March that year.
At the time, the new leadership indicated a task force – under Shallow – was being established to review the West Indies selection system, but the selectors were fired before any recommendations were put forward from the evaluation.
Browne and Baptiste, who also settled with CWI, sued the regional organising body for wrongful dismissal; Sebastien and Dowlin did not contest their dismissals in court, but they too, will be compensated.
Media reports in Jamaica said the settlement with the former selectors amounted to about 15 months of compensation, plus legal costs.
