WICB vows to turn tables quickly

KINGSTON, FEB. 28. The new management of the West Indies cricket team has vowed to turn around the side's fortunes as quickly as possible.

After being locked in discussions for the last three days, the new management team outlined four main short-term objectives which it will focus upon.

Ricky Skerritt, the 43-year-old St. Kitts businessman appointed manager last Tuesday when the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) named Roger Harper as coach and Jeffrey Dujon his assistant, said immediate results were important.

``Our objectives are to turn around the performance of our team, to get the team performing at its potential on a sustained basis, to improve teamwork and team spirit and to improve the confidence and discipline of the players,'' Skerritt told a news conference on Sunday.

He added ``the first two-and-a-half days has already convinced me that we have an extremely talented, diverse and cohesive management team. I am confident that we will be ready to start to work effectively with the players as soon as we can get them together at the camp next weekend.''

The West Indies is to name a 20-man training squad which will be in camp in St. Vincent from March 4 to 12 and from which the team for the first Test against Zimbabwe (March 16 to 20) will be chosen.

Harper, a former West Indies off-spinning allrounder, said he and Dujon, a former West Indies wicketkeeper-batsman, would be placing much emphasis on the technical aspects of the game and ``making the team more tactically aware.''

He noted considerable attention would also go towards fitness, discipline and making the team a more organised and cohesive unit as the philosophy of the new coaching staff will be teamwork and thorough preparation.

Camacho denies reports

Meanwhile, the WICB chief executive officer Stephen Camacho has denied reports that he has been asked to resign from his post.

The Barbados Sunday Sun newspaper reported on Sunday that an offer was on the table for Camacho to accept a severance package, and the final decision would be made known shortly.

``If I am, I don't know about it,'' Camacho told the newspaper from his home in St. John's, Antigua. ``I would think I would be the first to know.'' The WICB President Pat Rousseau also denied any knowledge of the matter when asked about the allegations. Camacho has been away from work over the past week through illness, but is expected to return to his desk on Monday.

The newspaper noted there had been reports of strained relations between the former West Indies opening batsman and some members of the WICB executive in recent years.

Camacho previously served for many years as secretary of the WICB, but was elevated to the post of chief executive officer just prior to the relocation of its headquarters from Barbados to Antigua.

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