EFFERVESCENT fast bowler Tino Best has been recalled to the Barbados squad.
The bubbly Best was dramatically added to the already selected 13-member squad for the third-round first-class match against Jamaica starting tomorrow, following the monthly business meeting of the board of management of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) on Tuesday night.
But it is still not clear whether Best, who is represented by Ralph Thorne, QC, following his exclusion from the previous match against England Lions will be chosen in the final 11.
He was excluded after a verbal tirade with team trainer Shannon Lashley over fitness drills ahead of that game.
A release from the BCA’s general secretary Gregory Nicholls yesterday said that the board wanted to clarify that the player’s omission from the original team selected to oppose Jamaica was “based on cricketing reasons determined solely by the selectors prior to the board’s opportunity to review the matter of Mr Best’s one-match suspension”.
“After considering the nature of the allegations made against Mr Best, together with his prompt and contrite acceptance of fault, his public apology to all relevant parties and his willingness to return to competitive action after serving
a one-match suspension, the board has determined that there is now no obstacle to Mr Best returning to the Barbados squad and to be made available for selection in the final XI since his non-selection on this occasion was not for any disciplinary reasons,” the release stated.
“The board’s decision to reinstate Mr Tino Best into the squad was made after a careful consideration of all of the relevant factors before it, and ought not to be taken as any indication as the board expressing a view as to the composition of the final 11 of this or any future Barbados team,” Nicholls said in the release.
He added that the BCA board remained fully committed to the principle that matters of the selection of the Barbados team should remain in the sole discretion of the selection panel that has been appointed by the board for that purpose.
“The board remains committed to ensuring that the integrity of our disciplinary procedures is effective to manage the Barbados cricket team in a way that does not harm our reputation of cricketing excellence, and regrets that any delay in treating to this matter was occasioned by the need to be consistent, transparent, and fair to all parties concerned,” he wrote.
Nicholls also indicated in the release that the BCA board was now satisfied that the matter had run its proper course and was now closed.
