WICB upset at Jamaica Cricket administrators
CaribbeanCricket.com has learnt that officials of the West Indies Cricket Board are disgusted by what they consider a rude, disrespectful and malicious press release from the Jamaica Cricket Association on Tuesday.
The JCA had lashed the WICB for its own release on Monday which seemed to have laid the blame squarely at the feet of the officials of the JCA for Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller’s comments at the JCA awards dinner when she addressed Chris Gayle’s continued exclusion from the West Indies team and Sabina Park not on the list for Australia matches.
The WICB officials are expected to take the JCA to task at its full Board Meeting in St Lucia on Friday.
Officials are perplexed that the JCA stated in its release that, “the WICB's revelation in its news release that Jamaica 'would feature as a host venue for the New Zealand tour' while being most welcomed, came as news to the JCA.”
One WICB official said that JCA had been told verbally that Jamaica will feature as a venue for the New Zealand tour and that the President of the JCA had a provisional schedule which includes Sabina Park as a venue and had this information even prior to it being shared with other members of the Board.
The official also said that the JCA’s brazen press release is even more alarming when only a few weeks ago the WICB virtually rescued the JCA from bankruptcy with a J$17,000,000 loan.
CaribbeanCricket.com has also learnt that a portion of the ongoing West Indies Women series against India was scheduled to be played in Jamaica but the WICB moved the matches after the JCA quoted exorbitant host fees. It is also as a result of these exorbitant fees that Jamaica was not considered as a venue for the West Indies and Australia Test match which was moved from Guyana.
The match instead went to Dominica.
The West Indies Women’s matches were swapped from Jamaica to St Kitts.
The WICB officials spent two weeks negotiating with the JCA to bring down the costs in an effort to host the matches at Sabina Park but to no avail.
CaribbeanCricket.com understands that, unlike with other facilities in the Caribbean, rental of Sabina Park has separate costs for the pitch, the outfield, the North Stand and other facilities.