Kirk Edwards may be out with Barbados, but he’s still in with the West Indies.
In fact, Barbados’ most controversial player at the moment could even be in the hunt to captain the West Indies’ Test team.
Despite missing the current regional NAGICO Super50 tournament in Trinidad and Tobago because he refused to sign for the team’s match kit and was sent home, the Barbados batsman and former skipper has been endorsed to play in maroon by none other than president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Dave Cameron.
According to Cameron, who gave the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) website an interview yesterday, Edwards remains eligible for selection on the West Indies team.
“Kirk is eligible for selection on the West Indies team unless the Barbados Cricket Association decides they are going to sanction him, since he made himself available for the NAGICO tournament,” Cameron told the website.
“He was sent home from Trinidad for disciplinary reasons and it concerns the WICB greatly because Kirk is seen as one of the potential captains of the senior West Indies team. After all, he was recently captain of the A team.”
Contenders
Edwards, a current Test and One-Day International (ODI) player, who skippered the A team last year, was among contenders for the captaincy of the West Indies Test team, but after being sent home last Sunday by the BCA board, his West Indies career also appeared in the balance.
Under a WICB rule which has been in place for over three decades, players must make themselvves available for regional competitions to be eligible for selection to the West Indies team, barring “injury, illness or exceptional circumstances”.
The rule has, however, been relaxed in recent years with the advent of the Indian Premier League and other Twenty20 tournaments.
Apart from two T20 matches and one ODI against Ireland in Jamaica this month, West Indies will also play England in three ODIs (in Antigua) and three Twenty20 Internationals (in Barbados) between February and March.
Edwards, whose case has been taken up by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), has been in negotiations with the BCA’s top brass for the past few days to meet and tell his side of the story. That meeting will take place this week, according to unconfirmed reports.
Hoping
“Clearly it is a BCA and WIPA matter but we are hoping it is quickly and properly settled,” Cameron added.
“When Kirk was removed as captain of the Barbados team last month, I contacted the BCA president Joel Garner and he advised that the BCA board had made a decision.”
Numerous efforts to reach Garner to determine when they will sit down with Edwards, or if the controversial batsman will face their disciplinary committee, have proved unsuccessful.
The WICB boss also said that the board will be holding a debriefing meeting in Trinidad on Friday with the West Indies team’s management.
“We will have the coach, captains of the last Test and ODI teams, the director of cricket, the chief executive officer, the chairman of the cricket committee and some other invited persons who shall remain nameless at this time,” Cameron said.
Edwards has continued to work out and have net sessions since returning to Barbados last weekend, and in a brief interview, though admitting he has a strong ego, denied having behavioural problems. (BA)
