Questions over Skerritt sacking

West Indies Cricket Board president Pat Rousseau and his deputy Clarvis Joseph could find their positions under threat because of the way Ricky Skerritt was sacked last week as team manager.

WICB rules state that unless there is full agreement among board members with the "procedure" taken to sack the team manager then a special meeting has to be called within 21 days to decide whether to remove the president and deputy president.

A board official said on Friday: "This is something that is in the law of the board and once a decision of this magnitude (Skerritt's sacking) is made without all parties concerned being in agreement an emergency meeting to decide their (Rousseau's and Joseph's) fate will be called."

The "procedure" referred to deals with the manner in which Skerritt was relieved of his managerial duties last Friday when he was informed by WICB chief executive Gregory Shillingford via e-mail of the decision to terminate his three-year contract.

Two WICB directors, Chetram Singh, who is president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), and Trinidad and Tobago's Richard DeSouza were quoted by the Barbados Advocate newspaper on Thursday as saying they disagreed with Skerritt's sacking.

The Advocate said Singh and DeSouza "are also members of the executive committee responsible for Skerritt's dismissal".

But Singh made it clear that the two-day annual general meeting of the WICB's directors at the Accra Hotel in Barbados on Friday and Saturday would be a fiery one.

DeSouza told the paper: "I'm not in agreement with the sacking and I will make that clear at the meeting".

Singh said he was informed by Shillingford last Saturday of a recommendation that Skerritt be removed as manager after Skerritt was debriefed by Shillingford, Rousseau and Joseph.

"My reaction to him (Shillingford) was that I am not in agreement with Skerritt being removed because I don't have the facts and if they are going to look at Skerritt they should look at the entire management team and then make a decision," Singh told the paper.

"The next thing I heard was that Skerritt was fired through correspondence by e-mail. It will be a hot topic at the meeting in Barbados this weekend," said Singh.

Rousseau said on Tuesday that further changes in team personnel could well follow Skerritt's sacking.

Skerritt was axed after a series of poor performances by the West Indies who have recently struggled to find form.

They lost their home test series to South Africa 2-1 last month and were also beaten 5-2 in the one-day series.

STRUCTURED COACHING
Meanwhile, former test paceman Andy Roberts is calling on the WICB to formulate a structured coaching programme for Caribbean cricketers.

"I have been advocating for a long time that we should have a regional programme so that if my 12-year-old son leaves here and goes to Guyana to live he falls into (a similar) programme and graduates (to the other age groups)," Roberts said.

"This is something we need to have and a lot of these things can be taught at that level. But the Board needs to put the programme together and the territories need to implement it."

Roberts, who spearheaded the fearsome four-pronged attack from the mid-1970s to the early '80s, will be in Trinidad this weekend working with the seven fast bowlers selected for a training camp ahead of the tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya starting on July 17.

Mail Cricket Editor