Rodriguez ‘innocent abroad’

Press, 2 April 1980, Page 44

Rodriguez ‘innocent abroad’

MZPA Sydney One of the main causes for the lack of discipline the West Indies showed during their cricket tour of New Zealand came from a complete lack of management, according to an English cricket writer, Henry Blofeld. • Writing in the “Australian” yesterday, he said that “charming and friendly though he was as a man, Willie Rodriguez as a manager was like an innocent abroad and did not have the slightest control over his side.”

The appointment of

Rodriguez, announced only nine days before the cricketers left the Caribbean for Australia and New Zealand, was a “disastrous choice,” wrote Blofeld. The West Indies were lucky that Clyde Walcott would manage the side to England next month as he was a firm and fair man. “The players respect him and he will not stand nonsense of the sort experienced in New Zealand. But the players have not only been spoilt, they

have also taken the law into their own hands and he may have a tough time putting tilings right.” Blofeld said that having listened to the countless stories about what went on in New Zealand, it appeared that Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Lawrence Rowe were among the chief activists of discontent. “Who activated them or was it simply the umpiring and having to carry their own bags through customs?

“What went on behind locked hotel bedroom doors one will probably never know. But at the end of the day everyone involved must be left in no doubt that a repeat performance of any kind would be totally unacceptable anywhere in the world. “I hope that the West Indies management is told firmly that if there are any such occurrences in England this summer, the side will be on the next plane home,” Blofeld wrote.