Greenidge Must Resign as W.I Selector

West Indies senior team selector Gordon Greenidge will miss the upcoming Carib Beer Cup first class tournament in the Caribbean because, according to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), he "has been seconded to help Bangladesh prepare for the same competition."

Understanding that Greenidge needs to earn a living (West Indies selectors are unpaid volunteers), we believe the former opening batsman should immediately resign as his work with Bangladesh constitutes a clear conflict of interest.

Greenidge is a qualified cricket coach. By all accounts, he is a good coach who did a phenomenal job as a paid employee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board in the past. Like everyone else, he has every right to earn a living by coaching the Bangladesh World Cup team. Let it be clear we have no problem with that.

That he gets to pick the West Indies team that, incidentally, will play in the same group with Bangladesh is a big problem. One that must be fixed immediately with Greenidge sending a letter of resignation to the WICB. It is the honourable thing to do. It is the right thing to do.

The board has asked junior selectors Clyde Butts and Ezra Moseley to fill in and "scout for talent" with Joey Carew in the absence of Greenidge and chairman Viv Richards (who is travelling with the West Indies team).

If Butts and Moseley are good enough to act as fill-ins while Greenidge coaches a rival (every team in the World Cup is a rival), then they are good enough to be full-time senior team selectors. The WICB must immediately do the right thing and give the job to either of the two.

As Butts has done an admirable job as chairman of the junior selection panel, we would prefer he remain in that post. Reverend Wes Hall should get on the phone with those that matter and get support for Moseley to be named as Greenidge's replacement.

When our team starts its World Cup campaign, coach Roger Harper will be matching wits with Gus Logie, who was seconded to Canada and Greenidge, who we are now being told, was seconded to Bangladesh. Counting the secondment of cricket development officer Michael Seepersaud to serve as a temporary ICC official, that's three of our s brains being given to others.

What's all this secondment business? At a time when our youth players are in desperate need of specialist coaching, two of our better cricketing brains are helping the competition, one as a paid WICB employee (Logie is under contract with the WICB).

We understand the WICB's need to maintain good relationships with all its ICC affiliate boards. But, when it's at the expense of our own players, we must take issue with the board. We have already made it clear Logie, as a paid WICB employee, should have stayed at home to work with the West Indies 'B' team.

But that's not the issue today. What's done is done. The issue today is that one of the men who selected the West Indies team is now coaching a team to beat them.

Greenidge must resign immediately.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
After our editorial appeared, the WICB issued a "correction" to its press release, saying Greenidge was not seconded to Bangladesh:

The WICB correction reads: "In news release headlined "Butts, Moseley Helping To Scout For Talent" please read in third para "Greenidge has made himself available to help Bangladesh prepare for the same competition"...instead of "Greenidge has been seconded to help Bangladesh prepare for the same competition"...(correcting Greenidge's status)."