Dr Paul Wright | WI should leave Test cricket alone

Internationally, the news for Jamaican sport fans continued to make some of us long for the end of summer.

The woeful performance of the West Indies cricket team continued here at Sabina Park, marked by one of the most abject surrenders on a cricket pitch, by a group of well-paid men, who amazingly continue to receive the same remuneration, whatever their performance on the pitch.

Darren Bravo has scored only two half centuries in 29 innings at an average of 17.28 across all formats of the game since his return to International cricket in November 2018. Yet he continues to receive a generous emolument as a professional cricketer! Jason Holder, our captain, is the highest-ranked Test batsman (34th) in the West Indies team. He bats at number 7!

When will Cricket West Indies realise that this group of men selected to represent us are just not good enough for Test cricket? It is time to withdraw from Test cricket for the next two years and concentrate on developing our under 19 and under 17 cricketers. This group of men getting paid good money to represent us are a waste of important resources, necessary for developing our juniors!

Then the news of the positive drug test of the sensational junior sprinter Briana Williams caused literal shock waves across the nation. The substance has been reported as Hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic that has gained a reputation as the “masker-of choice” of some athletes in different sports.

In Jamaica the authorities have had to deal with these reports in the past and have by and large taken a very relaxed view of this transgression. A local martial arts star, who tested positive for the diuretic, managed to convince an Independent panel that he inadvertently placed innocent medication he was taking into a container that his grandmother had used to store her hypertensive medication, thus resulting in the contamination of his urine test result. A sprinter of note postulated that maybe the sweat from a tainted athlete had somehow made its way into her urine sample, thus compromising the result of her test.

But now, with the deadline for naming our team to the World Championships in Doha approaching, there needs to be an urgent meeting of the Independent Tribunal of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) if our teenage sensation is to fulfill her dream of going to a senior World Championships this year. I really doubt that the position articulated by the president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) that an enquiry may not be necessary, can withstand scrutiny.

Our teenage sensation and national treasure Briana Williams has some positives and negatives going into a possible hearing by an Independent Tribunal, considering her positive result. On the positive side, she is a junior, charismatic and a darling of every Jamaican sport fan. On the negative side is the fact that she competed a race, while having in her body, a substance banned by the WADA code and by rule, her result and time of the race should be erased.

That would mean that an athlete who trained just as hard as everyone in the line-up for the finals, was excluded from consideration for Doha and may have stopped training. Her place denied by someone who transgressed the rules!

Further her coach, the legendary Ato Boldon, in 2001 tested positive for ephedrine and convinced an Independent panel that he took “cold medicine” for flu and in no way intended to cheat! He was exonerated with a warning.

Briana’s support team cannot escape blame and sanction. What about the manufacturers of the “flu medicine” who are now accused of selling medication contaminated by a drug that has no business in the medication for which it is advertised. I am reasonably sure that with the frequency that “fake drugs” have appeared in our Pharmacies and drug stores, the bar-code and batch number of the offending blister pack is vital to their investigation, because if the claim by our teenage sensation’s legal team is to be believed, then ALL packs with a similar batch number or bar-code has to be immediately recalled! A sympathetic nation awaits the decision of the “bigger heads” that has to come before this week is out.

Let us pray!