Skerritt hits back at B’dos cricket boss
CRICKET WEST Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt believes Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president, Conde Riley, will “feel embarrassed” when he reflects on his media tirade against recent board decisions.
Riley, in an interview with an Antiguan radio station last month, slammed the board’s decision to remove Englishman Richard Pybus as interim head coach and change the entire selection panel ahead of the ICC World Cup in England.
Also a CWI director, Riley claimed that the decisions would destabilise the team because “the timing is wrong”.
“Mr Riley is president of the Barbados Cricket Association, a highly prestigious body with a
tremendous history and legacy, and I think when he looks back on it all, I think he will feel embarrassed by what he did,” Skerritt said.
“I think he erred and he would not have meant to do what he did, and I hope in the final analysis, he will look back on it and feel a little bit embarrassed about by what he did.”
Riley was widely regarded as a staunch ally of former CWI president Jamaican Dave Cameron, who recently lost his bid for a fourth consecutive term when Skerritt won a hotly contested election in Jamaica.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
In fact, Riley copped criticism during the election campaign when the BCA snubbed a request from Skerritt and his running mate, Dr Kishore Shallow, to present their manifesto to the members of the local body.
Following the election, however, Riley pledged to work with Skerritt, saying he would “continue to support any president that is elected democratically”.
In one of his first major decisions as president, Skerritt reversed the appointment of Pybus and installed Barbadian Floyd Reifer in his place, along with a new coaching staff.
The board also installed a new selection panel headed by Jamaican Robert Haynes, ousting former chairman Courtney Browne and his team.
‘Mr Riley is president of the Barbados Cricket Association, a highly prestigious body with a tremendous history and legacy, and I think when he looks back on it all, I think he will feel embarrassed by what he did.’