Caribbean Times 88th Issue - Thursday 8th September 2016

Thursday 8th September 2016 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g 15
Leeward Islands Hurricanes lose
five players to West Indies duties
By Vanroy Burnes
The Leeward Islands Hurricanes will
be without five key players for the start
of the West Indies cricket Board
Professional Cricket League (PCL) due
to West Indies duties.
All-Rounder Rahkeem Jimbo Cornwall,
Jahmar Hamilton and Keiron Powell
have been all selected for the West
Indies A team to tour Sri Lanka later this
year.
Meanwhile, pacer Alzarri Joseph and
West Indies Cricket
Board’s chief executive Michael
Muirhead will step
down from his position after
a four-year stint in the role.
Muirhead’s contract was up
for renewal on October 14,
but he has opted to quit the
WICB. Muirhead, who had
replaced Ernest Hilaire the
WICB CEO in 2012, said he
had helped the board turn its
finances around.
“I came in at a time when
the state of finances at the
board were in deficit and in
my brief tenure I have managed
to turn around and will
be leaving with a surplus,”
Muirhead told ESPNcricinfo.
With a banking and marketing
background, Muirhead
was focused on the numbers
and the money element and
worked in close association
with WICB president Dave
Cameron.
Although Muirhead counts
as having contributed to West
Indies’ two World T20 wins,
his tenure, along with Cameron’s,
will be remembered for
their run-ins with senior West
Trinidadian Nicholas Pooran who was
drafted by the Hurricanes have been included
in the West Indies team to tour
Pakistan later this month.
In the meanwhile another Leeward
Islands player Anguillan Moncin Hodge
has been placed on standby. Head Coach
of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes Reginald
Benjamin, now in his second year
with the team, was elated with the news
of the selection of the players and noted
that the Leeward Islands players must be
Indies players over issues like
the pay disputes and selection.
A dispute related to payment
structure between the players,
the WICB and the West Indies
Players’ Assocation resulted
in the team pulling out of
their tour of India in October
2014. The board faced a crisis
before this year’s World T20
in India after the players appeared
to collectively reject
the contracts offered by the
WICB due to what they perceived
as “huge financial reductions”.
Following West Indies’
title win, Darren Sammy
and a few other senior players
had criticised the WICB, and
were reprimanded by the ICC
after the tournament.
Muirhead agreed the
chasm between the board and
the players has been always
there, but the divide is steadily
being bridged. He pointed
out that when he entered the
WICB, there was constant
strife between the board and
the West Indies Players Association
(WIPA).
“Before the two-match
T20I series against India in
Florida, WIPA and the WICB
hosted a symposium where
players and administrators
met in an effort to resolve
longstanding disputes. “A lot
doing something good in the eyes of the
selectors.
However, Coach Reginald Benjamin
said Orlando Peters was omitted from the
Hurricanes team for this season, but is
hopeful that he will make a return to the
team at a later date.
The West Indies Cricket Board PCL
Competition will bowl off on November
11th when the Leeward Islands Hurricanes
will oppose the Barbados pride in
their opening encounter.
Muirhead to step down as WICB CEO
of players were able to speak
quite frankly. The lines of
communication are now reopened,”
Muirhead said. (ES-
PNcricinfo)