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The quicksands that have gradually sucked West Indies cricket further and further into the mire are simply becoming more and more irresistible.

In the past month alone, we have had Joe Hoad's denunciation of the ways of management and the indiscipline of the players, team manager Ricky Skerritt's firing and reinstatement and the consequent resignation of West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Pat Rousseau and vice-president Clarvis Joseph.

The latest bombshell has come with the revelation by Rousseau, significantly after he had quit, that the WICB has lost big on an investment of US$3 million in the stock market, made on its behalf by chief financial officer Richard Jodhan and executive secretary Andrew Sealy.

Rousseau is claiming that Jodhan's decision to put the money with the eminent Wall Street brokers, Merrill Lynch, was not authorised by the board; his point being that the decision by him and Joseph to dismiss Skerritt was overturned on the same grounds.

As such, he questioned Jodhan's appointment to the interim committee that is running WICB business until the July 21 elections for a new president.

Prompted by Rousseau's charges, the WICB has issued a response in which it revealed that a committee was formed last April to probe the matter. It found that the investment was indeed made but it could not find evidence that Jodhan and Sealy had the authority to make it.

It was predictable that Rousseau would not go quietly. The circumstances of his departure were demeaning and, as he subsequently admitted, surprised him.

He has made accusations that the board is riddled with insularity, that it is still an old boys' club and that his removal was orchestrated. If that was all mundane stuff, the subsequent revelations about the US$3 million investment are definite cause for concern.

Although it shows again the WICB's lack of transparency and accountability, it is immaterial to the issue whether the story would have got out had Rousseau not quit the presidency. Nor does it make any difference whether he is using his inside knowledge to get back at the board.

What has emerged is that officers of an organisation that can ill- afford it, have gambled with US$3 million and no one can tell whether, like Rousseau and Joseph in the Skerritt case, they did it on their own and without proper sanction.

It is mind-boggling and is further evidence of mismanagement.

Even those of us bewildered by the machinations of the stock market know it to be a fickle undertaking. What would make the WICB, or its finance officer, go meddling in it when there are guaranteed alternatives?

We await the answers, more in hope than expectation that they will be forthcoming.

The team's superstar, one of the most identifiable players on the planet, doesn't turn up for an important match for which he has been chosen.

The team manager makes three futile trips to the airport to meet him only to find out later that he has seen around the nightspots of Port- of-Spain with his close friend, another champion in another sport, at about the same time he should have been representing his country.

Asked to explain his absence, he states that he missed his flight connections and points out that he is concerned for the health of his hospitalised sister.

Unconvinced, the team manager and technical director decide that, in spite of his brilliance and experience, the champion should be dropped for the next, even more important, match.

One newspaper hails the decision, saying that it shows the administration is not about accepting anything short of disciplined commitment from its players. The team's former coach makes much the same point.

Miffed at his treatment, the star boy drops out of training and another close friend, the captain, threatens to quit if he isn't reinstated. Pressure from other quarters mounts for his recall.

The controlling body for the sport now reconsiders the decisions, meets with the player and his agent and, bingo, he is back in the starting line-up. But not before he apologises for his actions and renews his commitment to his country.

It certainly makes for disturbing, but very familiar reading, only this time the errant player is Dwight Yorke and not that other Trinidad and Tobago superstar.

© The Barbados Nation