By Morissa Lindsay
Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) President Conde Riley has described an impasse between former Barbados and West Indies batsman Kirk Edwards and the BCA that led to a major out-of-court settlement in Edwards’ favor as a very ” disaster”. He also stressed that there was no reason for his board to resign over the settlement.
Edwards was recently awarded over BDS$200,000 in damages by the BCA for a 2014 incident that resulted in a breach of his contract and significant losses after he was removed as captain of the Barbados team and subsequently sent home by the NAGICO Super50 competition played in Trinidad and Tobago at the time.
Riley told Barbados TODAY that under the advice of BCA’s lawyers, they took the decision to settle the matter out of court to avoid any further consequences and a prolonged court hearing. “Our lawyers advised us to discuss the case instead of going to court and spending a long time in court. So, after the lawyers met, they came up with a figure and advised us, and we took the lawyers’ advice,” he said.
A former Captain and Vice-Captain of the West Indies team, Edwards had a promising career marred by an affair in which he refused to sign his Barbados jersey and was soon blacklisted. It was a turning point in Edwards’ career as well
dropping out of Barbados, his cricketing fortunes took a nosedive both regionally and internationally.
Kevin Stoute stepped up to captain the Barbados One-Day team in 2014 after Edwards got his marching orders. When asked if he believed Edwards should have been stripped of the captaincy and treated in this way, Riley said: “He was the current captain, we won under him the year before and it was an unfortunate situation and it is all i would say. at this time.”
Riley explained that under his leadership as president, individual players do not have to sign for any kits and that has been the case since he took office in 2017.
“You will see that all the clubs and schools in Barbados have kits and do not have to sign. Clubs would sign for it and then distribute it to current players. So all clubs in Barbados and schools receive kits from the BCA and each player does not have to sign for anything; club or school sign for him. That’s what we’ve done since I became president,” Riley told Barbados TODAY.
One of the most talented batsmen of his era, Edwards, now 37, scored 110 against India in Dominica in 2011 on his Test debut. Edwards registered ten first-class hundreds with the highest individual score being 190 against Sri Lanka at Warner Park.
At the time of the Edwards riots, cricket administrator Hartley Reid was the manager of Barbados. After it was revealed that BCA would pay damages to Edwards, Reid was reported in another section of the media as calling for the BCA board to resign. During the impasse, West Indies Players’ Association President Wavell Hinds had criticized Reid for his handling of the matter.
However, Riley told Barbados TODAY that there was no reason for the BCA board to resign over the settlement. He emphasized that the decision taken to settle the case out of court was based on the advice of BCA’s lawyers in whom the board had full confidence to carry out their work effectively and efficiently.
“Resignation for what? Our Board took the advice of our attorneys, our esteemed counsel. Even though we have two attorneys on our board, with something like this, once we got the request, we passed it on to our various committees and our attorneys. So it wasn’t a board decision, it was the advice of attorneys as professionals,” Riley said. [email protected]
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