'Brian Was Very Very Upset'

Sat, Jul 8, '06

[ Part 1 ] | [ Part 2 ] | [ Part 3 ]

We continue our Q&A with Ricky Skerritt, the first ever full-time West Indies team Manager. Two years after he resigned, he has finally broken his silence on his turbulent four-year employment with the WICB. He has made it clear that he bears no ill will to anyone.

He wishes not to cause embarrassment, and in fact refused our request for an interview soon after he resigned in 2004 and again in 2005.

Skerritt described himself as being a "massive cricket fan" even before joining the West Indies team in 2000. He still loves West Indies cricket and so agrees with Ken Gordon's call to put the baggage behind us. But his perspective on the environment within which players and the management team had to work, is useful in providing explanations to some of the sensational incidents which occurred during his tenure ? the infamous 47 all out being the most disastrous.

He admits to making mistakes and in this segment, Skerritt talks about the biggest one of all. He also discusses using the media in order to be heard, as well as the situation leading up to that disastrous day at Sabina Park.

MM: What is the biggest mistake you think you made?

RS: I made one major mistake as a manager and that was the incident where I allowed the ICC Media Manager to put out a press release which they had written about Brian Lara's illness in Sri Lanka during the Champions Trophy. I didn't write the press release myself, but I approved its release.

There was a great demand by match officials and the broadcast media for information about Brian, who had left the field for longer than was normally allowed, and there were all kinds of uncertainty being generated. Brian was actually at the hospital and it was probably the only occasion when I had not accompanied Brian myself in a medical situation. The local doctor had said that Brian needed to go to the hospital lab for tests. It wasn't as if he had a broken finger or broken ankle or something, so because the match was still going on and I had some things to do, I had not accompanied him.

The ICC had just established a new standard because some players used to just go off the field and rest as they felt like. The Match Referee was the one who was sending the ICC Media Manager all the time to find out, because Brian had made a hundred earlier and he felt we were resting him. In my sense of urgency to please the ICC Match Referee, I allowed their Media Manager to run with this media release.

When I realized that Brian was very very upset about the release, I went to the hospital myself and I apologized to him, because that is one thing about me. If I know that I screwed up, I am prepared to admit it. In looking back on the incident, I realize it was caused by my inexperience with such a situation. It was not a cricket specific injury. He was just undergoing a series of tests which required that he be hospitalized.

How did you know that Brian was upset?

He told me. I also had telephone calls coming in from people who were close to him cussing me.

Colourful language?

Look, I got cussed left, right and centre. I was always very accessible because some others involved with our squad were usually reluctant to face the media and even the fans sometimes. You know sometimes when your intentions are noble, you don't see right away that you are wrong?

In spite of him being angry with me, I think Brian, over time, saw that it was a genuine mistake. I believe I understand Brian Lara as a cricketer and a human being and have the highest respect for him; by the time I joined the team I was already one of his biggest fans. People forget that when I went to the team, I was already a massive West Indies cricket fan. My initial handling of the media with regards to Brian's hospitalization was the biggest mistake I made and it had to do with my slowness to spot the sensitivity and privacy involved?you see, a specialized Media Manager might have understood the sensitivity. But it was a good lesson for me.

I had been calling for a Media Manager all along. I think it's very important that you have specialized people who understand the sensitivity of certain things which I had to learn myself over time. I honest to goodness don't recall making any other significant mistake that was catastrophic. This was a mistake because it distressed Brian personally, and it gave out information about him which didn't need to go out in the way it did.

Let's talk accessibility. When I first started in 2003 and I wanted to interview players, I could have called you and it would be arranged. I remember wanting to do a story on how players learned they were selected. You said you would tell the guys. Later, when I saw Daren Ganga, he said 'oh yes, the Manager told us that we should expect you'. So for me, the accessibility was great and I just wondering if that had anything to do with your experience in the media as a radio and TV correspondent. What made you operate that way?

It would be partly, but I wanted the players to develop self confidence by interacting more with the media. It was important that as many of them as possible got a chance to sit down and be interviewed. This forced them to think and reflect on themselves...to me it's all about self-development. It was also about respect for the media. Let me tell you something, when I went to the team, Curtly Ambrose had not done an interview they tell me for about six years.

Not even post match?

Zero. Because of past experiences, Curtly had no tolerance for just about every media man and had no desire to speak to any.

Or woman.

They had no women cricket journalists on tour in those days. I still believe you're the first woman that I have ever met before I went to India where I met a few. In that first tour in England, I got Mikey Holding, and I believe Ian Bishop, to sit down and do an interview with Ambrose and Walsh, who clearly were both soon to leave the team and had wisdom to share. The Channel 4 people still love me for it. It was played over and over through that summer.

Ambrose made a statement which said in effect that the young fast bowlers today are not serious. He didn't call any names. Do you know that that comment coming from a great fast bowler upset the other young bowlers in the team and created tremendous division within the team? Rather than them saying 'I wonder what he means.'

On tour, when I tried to connect former players with young players I got into trouble. I was accused of interference. I couldn't understand why the former greats like Mikey Holding, who was my friend long before I became Manager, were not spending time with younger bowlers like Franklyn Rose. Our young fast bowlers were delivering a dozen to 20 no-balls in every innings. What is it? Is it that they are so casual that they're missing their mark? Do you know that four out of five no-balls are caused by the bowler starting off from the wrong spot?

A simple thing like that.

A simple thing like that! The communication between Walsh and Ambrose and the rest of the bowlers had almost completely shut down. There was not enough passing on of skill taking place within the team. By his last tour ,I believe Ambrose, in frustration, had given up completely. I think Cuddy never ever gave up.

I remember in the dressing room after we lost the Lords Test, in 2000, Ambrose and Walsh sitting in the corner. Even when the others were on the bus downstairs, they were sitting in the corner quietly sharing their last moment at Lords in defeat. They were two great warriors who I will always be thankful that I was able to work with. Because I usually never left the dressing room until all of the players had gone, all I did was sit down in the corner with Walsh and Ambrose like this [he puts his hands on his jaws] just to let them know that they had my empathy, because this was their last time that they were probably going to be in that dressing room, and no words could explain their emotions. But I shared their disgust at our performance and their sadness.

But the young fast bowlers, who had not bowled very well, were in the bus probably looking forward to their next meal and ready to go have fun, but Walsh and Ambrose were in the dressing room with the Manager feeling the agony of defeat.

So this now reminds me of the 47 all out at Sabina Park where afterwards there were some people in the Mound and the hullabaloo that created.

Right. That was the day that I decided I was resigning. The first draft of my letter was written that Sunday night.

* Look out for the third and final installment where Skerritt talks about his decision to resign, the players on the mound and the absence of rules governing player behaviour.