Samuels dismisses speculation

In-form Jamaican batsman Marlon Samuels has dismissed reports that the reason for him not taking up the offer to replace Dwayne Bravo in the West Indies team at the on-going Cricket World Cup in India, resulted from fears that he may be arrested by police in that country.



Samuels and other members of the Jamaica senior cricket team returned to the island yesterday, after playing three matches abroad in the Regional Four-day Tournament.



Samuels says the suggestion is ridiculous, as he was innocent as it relates to the charges laid against him in 2007 by the International Cricket Council (ICC), for passing on information to an Indian bookmaker.



Samuels says it is just speculation and total rubbish and he has no fear of going back to India.



The ICC, who were presented with copies of taped conversations between Samuels and a bookmaker by Delhi police during a hearing into the allegations, banned Samuels in 2008 for two years for directly or indirectly engaging in conduct prejudicial to the game.



In an article published in the Trinidad Express newspaper on Monday, renowned cricket commentator and writer, Tony Cozier, who is in India covering the World Cup, suggested that Samuels might have declined the West Indies Cricket Board selection committee’s offer because he feared being arrested by police in India.



Cozier says Samuels has taken the same course as that of South African players Herschelle Gibbs and Nicky Boje, who were both implicated in the match-fixing scandal that led to a life ban for the late captain, Hansie Cronje.