WICB: What's With All The Injuries?

A review of the unusually high injury record of the senior West Indies team is one of the key items on the agenda for Saturday's board of directors' meeting of the West Indies Cricket Board at the Jolly Beach Hotel in St. John's, Antigua.

The fitness of the side has been brought into question after the heavy casualty lists sustained on the visits to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka last year, and many Windies Cricket fans have expressed great concern.

Team manager Ricky Skerritt had been asked to explore the nature and gravity of the heavy injury list and prepare a report for the directors. His findings will be studied at Saturday's meeting.

"I can say it is a worrying to see our players getting injured so often," Rev. Wes Hall, president of the WICB, said on Thursday.

"It is a very expensive exercise when we have to be constantly shuttling players to and from tours because we have so many injured players and that too is a concern.

Following the board meeting on Saturday, Gregory Shillingford, the chief executive of the WICB, and Michael Hall, the WICB chief operations officer, will have face-to-face discussions with representatives of the WICB medical panel in Jamaica on Tuesday.

"I know there has been some criticism of us and we have heard them," Rev. Hall said.

"We are mindful of what people have been saying and now we want to listen to the experts for them to advise us. It is uncommon for us to see so many injuries in our side."

Rev. Hall believes Saturday's board meeting, that will also consider the Tours and Tournaments Report, the WICB Revised Code of Conduct 2002, and Windies World Cup 2002 report, is very important because of what lies ahead in the coming year.

"This board meeting is going to be a very meaningful one because this board has been going for five to six months and so it will be a time of great introspection," he said.

"We will have to get our act together because we have four straight series - starting with Pakistan in Sharjah, at home against India and New Zealand, then India in India - before we get to the World Cup next year. So we have to plan for all of it."

SOURCE: West Indies Cricket Board.