No Double Standard

Former West Indies Cricket Board Director and Head of the West Indies Women’s Integration Committee, Vincentian, Lennox John, sees no double standard in allowing the West Indies Women’s team to go on tour of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

John told SEARCHLIGHT last Tuesday evening that he thinks the decision to tour the two countries rests with the players.{{more}}

“I think it rests with the players”, John opined.

Head of the Windwards Islands Cricket Board for a number of years, John said that he understands the women’s reluctance to refuse.

“They (the women) see it as a big occasion for some exposure, so they will be slow to refuse to go”, John said.

“They are anxious, and you cannot blame them,” he added.

One player selected, Vincentian medium fast bowler Phernell Charles, in last week’s issue of SEARCHLIGHT, when quizzed about the security concerns responded that she was not fearful of travelling to Asia, despite the current unrest.

According to Charles: “fear is in the mind”.

John, however, stated that if the players show any objection as regards their safety, then, the West Indies Cricket Board should seriously consider calling off the tour.

Last week, CEO of the WICB Donald Peters reported that the proposed tour by the senior team was dependent on confirmation and approval of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).

Subsequently WIPA revealed that their senior players were unwilling to travel to the volatile region.

Peters indicated that the younger players expressed a willingness to undertake the tour.

Peters said that the West Indies Cricket Board is taking a new approach and found that the majority of the younger players would go, while the senior players chose not to.

There has been little word, though, about the Women’s tour, except Peters’ announcement that the WICB would conduct a security assessment before dispatching any team to Pakistan.

Violence has plagued Pakistan on an almost daily basis, and only last week Friday, five people were killed when a bomb blast ripped through a religious school.

A massive suicide truck bomb then gutted the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital Saturday, killing several people and wounding hundreds.

In Pakistan, the West Indies is set to play five One-Day Internationals and three Twenty/20 Internationals. They move to Sri Lanka for five One-Dayers.

Middle order batsman Julianna Nero, another Vincentian, is also part of the 14 member regional team.

The rest of the team reads: Nadine George -Captain (St. Lucia) Stefanie Taylor, Shanel Daley (Jamaica), Deandra Dottin, Danielle Small, Charlene Taitt (Barbados), Anisa Mohammed, Kirbyina Alexander Stacy Ann King , Merissa Aguilleira (Trinidad and Tobago ), Erva Giddings (Guyana), and Afy Fletcher (Grenada).

The team assembles in Barbados for a Pre-tour Camp before heading to Pakistan. The Pakistan leg is set to run from October 14 to November 1. The Sri Lanka leg ends November 17.(RT)