A turf war between sports and Government officials contributed to the debacle that led to the aborted second Test between West Indies and England at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground (VRCG).

This is the view of Enoch Lewis, president of the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), who believes that a number of sports and Government officials were trying to take control and fake authority for certain things that were outside of their realm of operation.

Lewis has stated categorically that the ABCA should be exonerated from any blame for the confusion that led to the Test being abandoned.

"For the past 25 years, the ABCA has hosted international matches in a seamless manner," said Lewis at a news conference here.

"We have never had any difficulty. The difficulties we are having with respect to the hosting of international matches now started with the coming on stream of the 2007 World Cup.

"There was a board appointed by the government to oversee the VRCG, but things have not worked so great because the people with the institutional knowledge of cricket [event management] have basically been left out of the operations.

"What I have discovered is that there was a fight for turf. There was too much bureaucracy and, in the process, the ABCA was kept out of the loop."

complaints

Only 10 balls were possible before West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards complained to his captain Chris Gayle and the umpires about his inability to properly negotiate his run-up on the soft, excessively sandy outfield.

Jerome Taylor had already protested at the southern end, and changed his line of attack from over to around the wicket after three balls of the first over of the match.

The situation was not helped when a squall of rain swept across the ground about 10 minutes after the start and prompted a delay lasting about 20 minutes.

"In the past, the ABCA has always reserved the right to employ someone to prepare the pitch and the outfield for international matches," Lewis said.

"The VRCG committee resisted that because they had a staff at the ground which they employed. But this staff did not report to us, and we wanted to have somebody inside there that reported directly to us.

"When we started preparations for the Test match and tried to find out exactly what was the situation at the VRCG, we were told there was an independent contractor preparing the outfield and the VRCG staff was in charge of the preparation of the pitch."

Lewis disclosed that he made two attempts to personally inspect the VRCG to see what progress was being made regarding preparations, and, on both occasions, he was denied access to the ground.