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Marlon Samuels

Jermaine Lannaman, Star Writer

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels has strongly denied several assertions made by West Indies one-day captain, Dwayne Bravo, in a letter issued to the media at the weekend.

The letter, the latest in a series by Bravo, refuted previous comments made by Samuels in a radio interview done early last week, where the latter distanced himself from the player boycott of the recently concluded West Indies tour of India.

In replying to a segment of the letter, which stated "Mr Samuels was invited to, and, did attend the majority of meetings with the players on tour." Samuels, however, has hit back insisting the statement is untrue.

"That is definitely not true. I don't know what he called majority," he said.

"I went to a couple of meetings and voiced my opinions by asking some serious questions, which, at the time, he was not willing to share, which for me was a waste of time."

Samuels, who is the first West Indian other than Bravo to speak publicly on the withdrawal, also dismissed another section of the letter which stated that Samuels contributed vigorously to the discussions and indicated that he would stand with any decision taken by the team.

"I never put up my hand or anything to say that I stand by any team or anything like that. I don't know where he got that from," Samuels said.

Radio comments

"The word vigorously that he used, most definitely. My questions were vigorous towards him, and, if he was not up to delivering on the questions that I put towards him, again, I thought it did not make sense.

"If you can't go out there and deliver what I want, and still you want me to take a real part (in the discussions), then I am not going to take part in it."

The 33-year-old Samuels went on to state that for Bravo to write that he was 'shocked' at his radio comments is as a surprise to him.

"He shouldn't even be surprised at anything I said because of the way I was moving on tour. He should have seen that I was definitely in the middle, and watching how things would go," Samuels said.

Samuels reiterated his position that he was not in agreement with the team leaving India, said Bravo simply erred in dealing with the matter.

"How it was dealt with was wrong. Wavell Hinds had already done wrong, but, it (the impasse) could be worked out in a better way," he said.

"We were there to play cricket, and were already there, so why not finish the cricket, and then go and negotiate and deal with the situation?"