LICB Head Denies Coach Not Part Of Selections Process

President of the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB) and former national cricketer, Enoch Lewis, has rebuffed claims by coach of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, Winston Benjamin, that his recommendations during a selection meeting held last month were ignored by the body’s selection committee.
Benjamin, a former national and West Indies fast bowler, said last week that he did not have a vote during the selection process nor were his suggestions and or input taken into consideration, adding that he is not satisfied with the make-up of the squad.
Lewis said the LICB’s format is the same as most regional boards, including that of Cricket West Indies (CWI).
“He doesn’t have a vote, neither himself nor the captain but both of them get a chance to influence the selections because they sit in the meeting. Every meeting that is for the selection of a team both the coach and the captain, just like the west indies cricket board [Cricket West Indies] where Jason Holder doesn’t have a vote and nor does Stuart Law but they influence the process. They know what they want, they sit, they tell the selectors what they want and they convince the selectors of what they want so we are adapting the same approach used by CWI,” he said.
Lewis, who played 42 First Class matches and scored 2237 runs in 77 innings, added that special efforts were made to bring all relevant parties together during the selection process.
“When we were going to select the 15-man squad for contracts I made sure we didn’t do this via a Skype call, we didn’t do it by WhatsApp call. We did a face to face meeting including the coach and the assistant coach so we sat around a table and put all the players on the table and voted and decided on whom we thought should get contracts and everybody voted and said they felt like it’s the direction in which we needed [to go],” he said.
“Everybody had an opportunity to speak and to put their proposal forward so at no point in time anybody could tell you that they were told not to speak and they had no influence and they had no say,” he added.
The system, the president said, seems to be taking root as they have seen improvements over the past two seasons.
“When I took over we were at last, we are now third in the competition because we came third last year so we played the same 50 overs tournament so it is a matter of application for the players. Let’s face the reality, what we have here in the Leeward Islands is a very small community, the resources are limited and you have to maximize your limited resources,” he said.
The Leeward Islands Hurricanes is set to compete in the Regional Super50 starting October.