Findlay: Rousseau Questioned Selectors

Former chairman of the West Indies cricket selection panel, Michael Findlay, said yesterday that during his tenure as a regional selector, he received no direct interference from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

However, the former Windies wicket-keeper/batsman said that there were two occasions on which then president of the WICB, Pat Rousseau wrote him on matters of selection.

Findlay?s response comes in the wake of comments made by former West Indies chief selector Sir Viv Richards this week. The Master Blaster lashed out at insularity and interference by senior members of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

Richards described his two-year tenure as the equivalent of navigating through a ?war zone.?

Findlay recalled: ?At the end of the 2000 tour of England, we received a report that Chris Gayle and Franklyn Rose were not a good influence on the other players. We then made a decision that we were not going to select them.?

Findlay said Rousseau wrote him, claiming that the panel over-stepped its bounds by punishing the players.

?I wrote to him and explained that there were policy guidelines when selecting the team and these were all instituted by the Board. From that point, I never got a response from him, although we still maintain a good relationship until this day.?

Findlay revealed that the other occasion was when the panel decided not to recommend Jimmy Adams to continue as captain of the regional side.

?We thought at the time that Jimmy couldn?t make the team and hence, we decided to go for Carl Hooper as the captain. I told my committee to allow me some time to speak to Jimmy and explain the situation, before making the recommendation to the Board.

?I met Jimmy on a flight from Guyana and told him I would call him on his return to Jamaica that day. I did call him and we had a conversation, in which I explained our position. Jimmy, being the man he is, just said, ?okay man?.?

Findlay stated that Rousseau then wrote him saying that he had again over-stepped his bounds and that he should not have contacted the player, before making the recommendation.

?I prepared a letter to send to him, but soon after, he and Clarvis Joseph resigned over the Ricky Skerritt incident and I didn?t need to defend my position again.?

Findlay said that apart from those two incidents, he never had anyone from the Board, questioning his panel.

?Of course, when you went around to the Islands you heard Board members saying all sorts of things, but there was no direct communication.?

Findlay said that his stint, which ran from 1996 to 2002, was disappointing for the mere fact that the committee exposed a lot of talent, but many guys didn?t carry on.

He said Merv Dillon came on the scene before Makhaya Ntini, but has fallen away, while the South African is a world beater. He said that this was not a problem of the selectors, but the development process.

?The development process will correct this problem of so many cricketers not carrying on, but it is taking too long.?

Findlay described Richards as a good person and someone who just wants the best for the region.

?He is very cut-up by the fact that the team is not winning. I served with him on the cricket playing and development committee, and although he was frank when making his points, he was never confrontational. I think people just have to understand the man Richards and they can get along with him.?

Findlay, who skippered Richards on the Combined Islands team in the 1970s, said he was a good friend of Richards and the latter had time and time again complained about the state of the game in the region, which is really hurting him.

Richards took over from Findlay as chairman of the selection panel in 2002.