Morton, Benn & Best Grilled on Indiscipline

A speedy report is expected from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on the outcome of Tuesday's South Coast meeting here with its disciplinary committee and three regional "A" team players, who were accused of misconduct during the summer tour to Britain and Canada.

"The committee met with all three players. They will submit a report to the Board in the shortest possible time and once the Board is satisfied with the recommendations, it will release the information and take the actions recommended therein," WICB Chief Operations Officer Mike Hall said.

Barbadians Tino Best and Sulieman Benn, both aged 21, along with 24-year-old Runako Morton of Nevis, appeared before the Lennox John-chaired committee for mainly on-field misdemeanours during the June 9 to August 10 tour.

Originally, Best and Benn were to be in the hot seat for an hour each in succession starting from 9.45 a.m. and Morton was scheduled for a two-hour session after lunch, starting at 1 p.m.

However, after four members of the five-man committee, Vincentian Lennox John, Justice Eric Bishop of Barbados, Justice Anthony Lucky of Trinidad & Tobago and Justice Juman Yassin of Guyana ? Barbadian Edward "Teddy" Griffith was absent ? met with the players' attorneys to sort out procedures and then held discussions among themselves for roughly an hour, the hearing advanced rapidly.

"The proceedings went pretty well. I think I was satisfied with the level of representation. It?s now a matter of waiting to see what happens," secretary of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) Roland Holder told the Barbados Advocate.

Adrian King, a Barbadian lawyer, in association with Wendy Maraj, represented the players. Both are from Inn Chambers. They were hired by the WIPA. All three players were able to have their say before 1:30 p.m. First in was Best, followed by Benn and Morton, with each taking between half-an-hour and 45 minutes.

Apart from King and Maraj, Holder and Hall were present during those sessions. The committee re-convened after lunch to make their decisions. Fast bowler Best arrived just after 9 a.m. in the company of an officer from the Barbados Defence Force, where he is a member of the Sports Programme. Best relaxed in the lobby, chatting quietly with his lawyers and Holder. Soon the disciplinary committee made themselves available for a photograph.

A few guests at the hotel suggested it must have been a meeting of celebrities as two photographers from the print media kept their cameras busy. It was only a matter of time before middle order batsman Morton emerged from his room at the hotel to greet Best and other interested parties and just before 10:30 a.m., the tall, unmistakable Benn, a left-arm spinner, strolled in.

There was a meeting on Monday with the disciplinary committee, Holder and chairman of the WICB?s cricket committee, Mike Findlay, to discuss the Code of Conduct. West Indies "A" team manager Joel Garner of Barbados and captain Daren Ganga, a Trinidadian, both told reporters on returning to the Caribbean that there was indiscipline by some players.

It was the first trip with a West Indies "A" side for Benn, who is in his third season of first-class cricket, and Best, who made his first-class debut this year in the Busta Cup championship. Charges Morton has been a regular player for the Leeward Islands after his first taste of first-class cricket in 1996. He has also represented West Indies in two One-Day Internationals ? both against Pakistan in Sharjah earlier this year.

Morton's charges also included his recent premature return home from the Champions Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka after telling the West Indies team management that his grandmother had died. Subsequently, it was learnt that one of Morton's grandmothers died 16 years ago and the other is still alive.

* SOURCE: Barbados Advocate.