THE EDITOR, Sir:

I REFER to an article by your columnist Anthony Foster in the February 14 issue of The Gleaner, titled 'Annual awards need shake-up', in which he expressed certain opinions regarding the 2008 annual RJR Sports Foundation National Sportsman and Sportswoman awards ceremony.

Before I make any comment regarding the opinions expressed by Mr Foster, I must correct his mistake regarding the membership of the foundation's selection committee, which he has so assuredly provided for his readers.

For the record, the members of the committee for this year's deliberations were Mike Fennell, OJ, Vilma Charlton, CD, Myrtle Weir and Ed Barnes.

Mr Foster has apparently used as reference for his information, the same error which was carried in the other daily newspaper in its issue of Thursday, January 31.

Your columnist could have (as he has done on several other occasions) simply called me to verify the committee's membership. I would have been only too happy to oblige.

Jimmy Richards not a member

Even if as he says, "Since 2004, I have not given much respect to the decisions or selections of the committee", it might be useful for him to know the names of those for whom he has no respect, particularly as the distinguished sports historian and commentator Jimmy Richards has never been a member of the foundation or its selection committee.

Continuing, Mr Foster states that "the committee has also gone for the Olympic and World Championships performance. They did this in 2004, the year Powell first broke the world record, by giving the award to Danny McFarlane - and I also had a problem with that".

While I fully support Mr Foster's right to have a 'problem' with any subject on which he is expressing his opinion, I respectfully suggest that further, detailed review of the foundation's established criteria may prove enlightening.

Made case for Asafa

Asafa Powell's achievement in 2007 was not confined to his breaking of the 100m world record. Indeed, Mr Foster himself makes a strong case for Asafa when he cites his other achievements - individual bronze in the 100m and his astonishing (my word) final leg in the 4x100m relay which carried Jamaica from fifth to second place.

That these feats "came as no surprise to Jamaicans as he was expected to do it (sic) - or even better" does not in my humble opinion render them any less excellent or worthy of recognition.

Finally, Mr Foster asserts: "The committee's decision was also a slap in the face for the local governing body, the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association, of which three-time Olympian, Charlton, is the third vice-president and who, a couple weeks before made the correct move by awarding Smith, who became the first Jamaican to win a medal at a world event in the decathlon."

The RJR Sports Foundation has, since 2004, invited the views of the national governing bodies for all sports regarding their own nomi-nations for outstanding performers in their sport, as well as the sports editors of all major media houses regarding their nominations for Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year.

It is perhaps instructive that neither the JAAA, whose face Mr Foster claims the foundation has slapped, nor his own newspaper responded to those invitations.

In addition, there is also the fact that the criteria applied by the JAAA in selecting their athletes of the year are not the same as those applied by the foundation, and could very well give rise, as has happened this year, to different winners being selected.

Mr Foster has encouraged me to "urge the committee to be more consistent in its selections in the future".

I wish to assure Mr Foster that throughout my career, regardless of the organisation or project with which I have been associated, consistency has always been the goal. In turn, I wish to encourage Mr Foster to set even loftier goals for himself.

I am, etc.,

MICHAEL HALL

Chairman, RJR Sports Foundation

THE EDITOR, Sir:

HERE IN our day centre, we are regular readers of The Weekly Gleaner which helps to keep us in touch with what is happening back in the West Indies and for many of us, the only way of knowing what is happening in West Indian cricket.

Usually, the paper contains reports on matches that are being played or have recently been completed, which we always find interesting.

However, in reading the paper for the week January 28-February 3, we were taken aback by the lack of any mention of cricket - even though the West Indian team was involved in a series of matches in South Africa and had only just played the last game.

This led us to believe that The Weekly Gleaner no longer found anything of interest in West Indian cricket to report, and in effect, West Indian cricket had died on the tour of South Africa.

It is appropriate that it should have happened in South Africa, as it was there that the demise of West Indies began some years ago. To be exact, the demise started before the team had reached South Africa. It started when players went on strike, for more money, en route to South Africa and remained in their London hotel rooms.

Lost every game

After much pleading from then president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and the capitulation of the West Indies Cricket Board, the tour went on. The team arrived in South Africa with bigger pay packets but with little cricketing ability and proceeded to lose every game - Test and ODI matches that they played.

Since then, there have been many changes in the management, coaches, captains and players, but the team has hardly won any of the games that they played against meaningful opposition.

It is true that they have beaten Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and beaten Pakistan in a match in which Pakistan's generosity was more then evident, as South Africa must have been the first Test match of the series just ended. And, yes, they did win an ODI competition a couple of years ago, but not much else.

On this tour, having won the first Test match, hopes were raised, but that was to be the one game they would win. The results of all the other games, Tests and ODIs, went the way they always do: against the West Indies.

Beaten regularly

The team has been beaten, regularly, by all of the established international teams both in Tests and ODIs and, at times, even by the part-timers. The team has maintained its downward slide until it has reached the point where it now sits almost at the bottom.

Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are below, and with Zimbabwe not playing Test matches and with Bangladesh improving rapidly, it will not be long, if drastic measures are not taken now to reverse the slide, that West Indies will be at the bottom of the pile.

West Indian cricket in its present state has become an embarrassment to West Indian cricket lovers and supporters all over the world. The players seem to lack the determination to succeed, which should be driven by the pride of having been called on to represent West Indian cricket.

What was once a great team is now a shambles of a side and, with the exception of one of the players, looks like continuing to be so. The players have bigger pay packets. There have been changes in management, in coaching staff, captains and team members, but none of this has worked.

What this shows is that more money does not guarantee better players, or that ex-players necessarily make good managers. Also, overseas coaches cannot produce a good West Indian team if the basic material is not there in the first place.

Abandon tours

There needs to be a complete overhaul of West Indian cricket. It is too late for South Africa, but the wisdom of allowing the Sri Lankan tour to go ahead, with the present set up, must now be questioned as would the Australian tour later on this year. This should most certainly not be allowed to go ahead. It would be 'lambs to the slaughter'.

Let West Indian cricket have a time for reflection. Let the teams play among themselves at home.

Do not let them out again, as a West Indian team, until such a time that West Indian cricket can squarely look the rest of the cricketing world in the face. At present, West Indian cricket cannot do so.

We are, etc.,

C. WALKER, C. WILLIAMS,

J. ARTHUR, R. DENNIS,

The Caribbean Golden Age Association

The Millennium Centre

Dickens St, Peterborough,

Cambridgeshire, England