Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY MANAGER RICKY Skerritt has come out in defence of the four players seen on the Mound shortly after the West Indies were shot out for 47 at Sabina Park last Sunday. The has denied that West Indies players were at a party until early morning Sunday, and as expected, the fans are not impressed.
According to the fans those who are still so mad that they will not listen or try to understand, Skerritt is a weak manager, he will always to attempt to make excuses and that is exactly what he is attempting to do.
The truth is that what Skerritt says about the visit to the Mound makes sense.
"Yes, we had players who visited the Mound to speak to certain people but they did not go there to party while the rest of the region was hurting. Maybe it was not the best thing to do at the time, but we have some young players who can get carried away at times and all we need to do is to speak to them and let them know the consequences of their actions," said the manager.
That sounds reasonable. There were people on the Mound who have confirmed that although the four players were there, they were not drinking and they were not having fun. They were simply talking to friends.
Although, as West Indians, they should have appreciated the fact that the fans were hurt and should have gone quietly back to the hotel instead of going to a place where having fun is the main attraction, if that is the case, if it were really four of the many youngsters on the team who were on the Mound, then so be it.
What is important now, is that the players have been told that even if they did not commit a sin, what they did was thoughtless and offensive to a number of people - especially those who see them as ambassadors of the West Indies people.
As far as the presence of some of the players at a night club on Saturday night is concerned, Skerritt said on Wednesday that that is not true, that he does not know where it originated, and based on an experience I had on Sunday night while having dinner at a popular Kingston restaurant, no one should put any credence to it.
Four of us were having dinner, the group at the table to my left were leaving, and one of my group recognised one of them and said, "What an embarrassing performance today."
Before he could go on, one of them said: "That's not surprising. They were all at a night club last night - until four o'clock this morning, including Chanderpaul."
"Were you there?" I asked him.
"No, but my son was there. There he is, ask him."
"Were you there?" I asked him.
"Yes, but it was not four o'clock. It may have been 11.30 or 12 o'clock."
"Are you sure?"
"Well, it may have been 10 or 10.30. I am really not sure."
"Are you sure you saw Chanderpaul?"
"Well, I am not sure. I really don't know him."
Some of the West Indies players may well have been at the night club, but even if they were, what really matters is what they were doing there and how late they stayed there. Chances are, however, they were never there.
