PATRICK ROUSSEAU:WICB dictators must go
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 12:41 pm
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I have written more than one piece on the Chris Gayle affair with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the dangerous and iniquitous practice started by CEO Ernest Hilaire, where he assumes the role of judge and jury, instead of referring the matter, using the correct procedure, to the Disciplinary Committee of the WICB.
The danger with illegal and iniquitous procedures is the risk of their becoming embedded in the system and becoming dangerous to those who are governed by them.
I was in a state of shock on Tuesday when I heard Clyde Butts, the chairman of the WICB selectors, expounding on 'SportsMax Zone' that Suleiman Benn of Barbados had to satisfy selectors about his behaviour before being selected to the West Indies cricket team.
Roguish governance
The 'Hilaire cancer' has spread. Mr Butts has absolutely no authority to exclude anyone from the West Indies team for disciplinary reasons after that person has been punished for an infraction and paid the penalty. This power resides only with the Disciplinary Committee. If those instructions came from Hilaire, Butts should reject them.
I am sure the public will understand why I have insisted in all my writings on the Chris Gayle affair that the proper process is for Dr Hilaire to send infractions of the Code of Conduct to the Disciplinary Committee. This applies to the cases of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Gayle and Benn. For one person or a number of persons at the WICB to decide to use their standards and not the Code of Conduct laid down by the WICB - about who is entitled to be selected and who is not - is a departure from a long-established practice.
We have got to get rid of the dictators in the Caribbean so that the rule of law and natural justice prevail.
Link
I have written more than one piece on the Chris Gayle affair with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the dangerous and iniquitous practice started by CEO Ernest Hilaire, where he assumes the role of judge and jury, instead of referring the matter, using the correct procedure, to the Disciplinary Committee of the WICB.
The danger with illegal and iniquitous procedures is the risk of their becoming embedded in the system and becoming dangerous to those who are governed by them.
I was in a state of shock on Tuesday when I heard Clyde Butts, the chairman of the WICB selectors, expounding on 'SportsMax Zone' that Suleiman Benn of Barbados had to satisfy selectors about his behaviour before being selected to the West Indies cricket team.
Roguish governance
The 'Hilaire cancer' has spread. Mr Butts has absolutely no authority to exclude anyone from the West Indies team for disciplinary reasons after that person has been punished for an infraction and paid the penalty. This power resides only with the Disciplinary Committee. If those instructions came from Hilaire, Butts should reject them.
I am sure the public will understand why I have insisted in all my writings on the Chris Gayle affair that the proper process is for Dr Hilaire to send infractions of the Code of Conduct to the Disciplinary Committee. This applies to the cases of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Gayle and Benn. For one person or a number of persons at the WICB to decide to use their standards and not the Code of Conduct laid down by the WICB - about who is entitled to be selected and who is not - is a departure from a long-established practice.
We have got to get rid of the dictators in the Caribbean so that the rule of law and natural justice prevail.
Link
