By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies fast bowler, Michael Holding, wants to stay as far away as possible from the Cricket West Indies and West Indies cricket.
The Jamaican, who announce his decision to retire from international cricket commentary earlier this year, made the statement while speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, stating that he does not want to be associated with any organisation he does not consider as transparent.
“I don’t want to be officially associated with the West Indies cricket board or Cricket West Indies as they call themselves now. Any organisation that is not transparent I am not interested in being involved in it and even after Cameron’s departure, this West Indies cricket board is still not transparent so why would I want to be involved with that type of organisation. I have helped West Indies cricketers without being part of the West Indies cricket board or without being employed by the West Indies cricket board and I am quite happy to continue to do that but I don’t want to be associated with an organisation that has no transparency,” he said.
In May this year, Holder criticised the CWI over its reluctance to publicise the findings of the 63-page report from the auditors Pannell Kerr Forster allegedly highlighting years of poor governance and ineffective financial management that has led to cricket in the region suffering from a recurring cash flow crisis.
Holding, nicknamed the “Whispering Death” due to his quiet approach to the bowling crease, claimed 249 wickets in 60 Tests and 142 wickets in 102 One Day International (ODI) matches.
Asked if he would consider a career in coach, Holding said he would not dream of getting into that aspect of the game.
“I haven’t got the patience to coach so there is no way I could have gone into coaching. My mother was a teacher and my mother had the greatest of patience and skills as a teacher in the world but I didn’t benefit from that. I benefited more from my father’s side and his temperament. My father was a contractor, builder and you may know what it is like working on a building site and I think I kind of got that temperament from him instead of my mother’s nice, cool, calm and collective temperament, so I couldn’t coach,” he said.
“I have done ad hoc coaching, meaning, helped cricketers along the way by just having chats with them and having small instructional things with them but it have it as a career and say every morning I get up that this is my job, I don’t think I could do that,” he added.
Holding was part of the West Indies’ famed four-pronged pace attack that dominated the game in the 1970s and 1980s and included Antigua’s Andy Roberts, Barbados’ Joel Garner and Guyana’s Colin Croft.