The West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) has expressed serious concern over the treatment of Guyanese all-rounder Kevin Sinclair following his omission from the Guyana Harpy Eagles (GHE) squad for the upcoming West Indies Four-Day Championship tournament.
WIPA Secretary Wayne Lewis said the players’ body is dissatisfied with how the matter was handled and has initiated discussions with Cricket West Indies (CWI) in an effort to resolve the issue.
Sinclair was left out of the 13-man squad after local officials, speaking at a press conference at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) pavilion last Saturday, cited a pattern of “disciplinary issues” as the reason for his non-selection.
However, Lewis, speaking on Tuesday evening on the Mason and Guest programme in Barbados, contended that due process was not followed when Sinclair was previously sent home from a tournament.
“I was very, very much involved in that situation, and I was very upset,” Lewis said. “We thought that due process was not followed. There was no hearing, no disciplinary committee. He was just sent home.”
Lewis explained that the matter is complicated by the incomplete status of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) intended to be a tripartite agreement among WIPA, CWI and the regional franchises. While WIPA and CWI have signed their portion, he said, franchises have yet to formalise their part of the agreement.
“That’s something that Cricket West Indies has spoken to Chris Dehring about: that it needs to be satisfied and rectified,” Lewis noted, referring to CWI Chief Executive Officer Chris Dehring. “It’s supposed to allow us to take up the phone and deal with matters collectively.”
According to Lewis, WIPA attempted to intervene when Sinclair was sent home, arguing that as a union member he was entitled to representation and a fair hearing. “We tried to intercept it. We said he’s a member of WIPA, and we think it’s a unilateral decision to send him home like that. It never happened,” he said.
Lewis disclosed that he has since held discussions with senior members of the Guyana set-up, including former West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, in an effort to resolve the situation.
“He was never in a disciplinary situation where he went before a committee and was banned. Situations happen and they just made a decision to put him aside without due process, and we are not pleased about that,” Lewis said.
The WIPA official confirmed that he has reopened the matter, holding conversations over the weekend with Dehring and CWI Director Miles Bascombe to review the correspondence and seek a resolution.
Lewis also revealed efforts to ensure Sinclair remained active on the field; he approached former Trinidad and Tobago captain Daren Ganga about the possibility of selecting Sinclair for the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) team, should Guyana persist in overlooking him. Ganga, he said, was open to the idea.
He further indicated attempts to contact former West Indies all-rounder Carl Hooper, who he believes has influence with Sinclair.
However, plans for a CCC team were scrapped due to financial constraints at CWI, which Lewis said further limited Sinclair’s opportunities.
“We thought that Cricket West Indies would serve better if Kevin Sinclair were playing,” Lewis said. “Now that CCC is out of the tournament, I don’t know that Cricket West Indies is benefiting from him not playing at all when there are disagreements or misunderstandings about how he should be treated.”
While emphasising that WIPA does not control team selection, Lewis maintained that the union’s primary concern is fairness and adherence to due process.
“We’re not trying to be combative. We just want the matter resolved and fairness on both sides. That’s all we have asked for,” he said.
WIPA expects Cricket West Indies to take the lead in addressing the issue as discussions continue behind the scenes.
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