Samuels saved from expulsion by West Indies Board

It is now official that West Indies middle order batsman, Marlon Samuels escaped expulsion from the current tour of India, after spending a night in an Indian night club in breach of the team's curfew rules.

The young middle order batsman was spared the ignominy of being expelled after the President of the West Indies Cricket Board, Rev. Wes Hall, intervened in the matter.

It is now clear that the team's management voted to send Samuels packing, but referred the matter to the WICB for their concurrence before he was ordered home. But Hall indicated that Samuels was not expelled because "the penalty was not in keeping with the Disciplinary Guidelines."

Hall was responding to media reports that indicated the West Indies team management in India voted to send Samuels back to the Caribbean after he broke curfew, but the personal intervention of the WICB president saved the West Indies batsman from banishment.

"The way the report has been written gives the impression that I condone indiscipline, and I am diametrically opposed to any such assertions," Hall said.

"Discipline is dealt with under set guidelines in the team. It is under the purview of the manager and the rest of the management committee on tour. They deal with all acts of indiscipline, but the serious offences are referred to the WICB."

It was for this reason, Hall explained, that the team management referred the Samuels case to him and he sought the best legal advice to direct him on what action should be taken.

"We were advised whatever punitive measure was invoked had to be commensurate with the guidelines set out for discipline, and this legal opinion was conveyed to the manager," he said.

"For breaking curfew, it's a fine of 15 per cent of the match fee for the first offence, and for a second offence, on the same tour, it's expulsion. In view of this, the manager was advised he should write Samuels and inform him of this. That is the untrammelled truth of the matter."

Hall cautioned that although the WICB had to crack down on the incidence of indiscipline that has crept into West Indies cricket, they had to be fair.

"The WICB views very seriously any acts of indiscipline, but we must not act recklessly ourselves and be indisciplined in the way we handle these kinds of incidents," he commented.

"We have to act within the guidelines that have been set down. We have great faith in the management of the team to handle any acts of indiscipline."

West Indies trail India 0-2 in the three-Test series after losing the first match at Mumbai by an innings and 112 runs, and the second at Chennai by eight wickets. The third and final Test at Kolkata, started today (30 October).

Mervyn Dillon, a member of the current team, was the last West Indian player to be sent home from an overseas tour when he failed to attend a practice session in Sri Lanka last year, after expressing fear for his personal safety in the days leading up to that country's general elections.