The parents of Bermuda Under-19 cricket captain Oronde Bascome have criticised Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) for withdrawing funding for their son’s school studies in the UK.

Carla Foggo-Bascome and Herbie Bascome, the senior national team’s assistant coach, yesterday argued that their son was given a raw deal after the Board pulled the plug on his school scholarship to attend the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) earlier this month.

In a letter that was addressed to BCB president Reggie Pearman, the Ministry of Education, Sports and Recreation and The Royal Gazette (see Page 14), the parentsquestioned the Board’s integrity and reasons for terminating their son’s scholarship five days after he had been obligated to sign an agreement with local cricket’s governing body.

They also claimed that Oronde had been inadvertently led to believe that he had been enrolled in a cricket academy, and they questioned the BCB’s motives for airing the matter in public.

When contacted yesterday the Board stood by their decision to withdraw the player’s funding for not meeting specific requirements and insisted they had yet to receive any written correspondence from the Bascome family.

“The BCB have not received any such letter from the Bascomes. If and when such letter arrives, it will be dealt with accordingly,” read a short BCB statement.

The parents dismissed BCB claims that their son had been removed from the Board’s scholarship initiative because of a lack of commitment to both academic and sporting obligations.

“First of all we are astonished by the BCB’s press statement that Orondé ‘persistently fell short of his academic and sporting obligations’. Such negative public statements are intolerable. Secondly, we are very concerned that the Board have acted unfairly in terminating Oronde’s scholarship after just one term of study,” stated the letter.

“Any competent Board charged with the responsibility of granting a scholarship would know that an accurate assessment of a student’s first year at university cannot be properly made within the first term of study, particularly when that student has to adjust to a new social, cultural and teaching environment.”

The Bascomes revealed that Oronde had never sat any exams and questioned the manner in which the Board conducted their assessment and ultimately reached the decision to withdraw the scholarship.

“It is well established that recipients of scholarships are assessed on the basis of an academic year and that continuation of funding is contingent on the student providing a copy of their transcripts at the end of the academic year,” argued the letter.

“Any other basis of assessment is at best capricious, and fraught with risk. Therefore, we urge the BCB to implement a fair basis of assessment to avoid such occurrences with future BCB scholarship recipients.”

The parents also claimed that a place had not been secured for their son when he arrived at the UWIC to begin studies last October.

“When the BCB announced in June that Orondé, a graduate of Saltus Grammar School, would benefit from a BCB education initiative in the form of a scholarship, it was stated that he would be attending ‘the prestigious Cardiff/Glamorgan Centre of Cricketing Excellence’ based at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (‘the Academ>’),” they said.

“The truth must be known that upon arrival in Wales, Orondé discovered that a place had not been secured for him at the Academy, nor did he have full use of the Academy’s training facilities. Thus, Orondé was not able to get involved with the cricket programme in a meaningful way.

“We are by no means attempting to justify the fact that Oronde got off to a rocky start at the UWIC, but wish to state that the BCB are culpable for the reasons set out in this letter.

“It is most unfortunate that the Board has chosen to act in this manner — though we remain confident that had our son been given the opportunity, as promised, he would have placed himself in good standing.

“It is simply imperative that we provide a true account of circumstances. Further, we would be remiss if we did not address this matter in order to ensure that other young, bright and talented Bermudians do not face the unfair treatment that our son has had to endure.”