Leeward Islands Cricket Board president, Enoch Lewis, has called for Richard Pybus’s appointment as interim West Indies men’s coach
Leeward Islands Cricket Board president, Enoch Lewis, has called for Richard Pybus’s appointment as interim West Indies men’s coach to be rescinded, after accusing Cricket West Indies president, Dave Cameron, of “hand-picking” the Englishman and ignoring the best practices of “transparency, fairness and due process”.
In a strongly-worded letter to CWI dated December 16 last year, he labelled Cameron’s actions as “unfortunate, unacceptable and unethical” and expressed “profound disappointment, dissatisfaction, and dismay” over the “total disregard” shown for the procedure by which Pybus was selected.
According to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CMC Sports, director of cricket, Jimmy Adams, recommended to the CWI board of directors last September that the interim head coach be chosen from among a list comprising Nic Pothas, Roddy Estwick, Floyd Reifer, Gus Logie, Desmond Haynes, Toby Radford, Andre Coley, Esuan Crandon, Stuart Williams, Rayon Griffith and Robert Samuels.
Adams ultimately recommended Pothas for the position, indicating that the South African had also been favoured by the outgoing head coach, Australian Stuart Law, as well as the players.
This recommendation was subsequently approved by the CWI board with Pothas scheduled to take up the post from January, 2019 until September.
However, with Law exiting the post earlier than originally planned, Pothas assumed the position for the Bangladesh tour last December, but without agreeing to a compensation package.
Pothas subsequently rejected the first offer made – nearly half of what Law had been paid – and requested compensation closer to Law’s remuneration.