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Grand slam winning cricket coach Clevie Wade has revealed he quit Southampton Rangers because his team was not shown enough love by the club administrators.

Wade, who guided Rangers to seven trophies in the past two years, said he was upset that there had been no party or event held by the club to recognize the efforts of his side.

And he said it would only have taken a small sign of acknowledgement for him to stay at the club.

"Last season we won all the domestic trophies. We cleaned up in all departments - player of the year (Olin Jones), young player of the year (Malachi Jones) and coach of the year (Wade).

"The club did not do one thing to acknowledge this team. We were just pushed by the wayside.

"I felt to myself, what more do we have to do? Let's have a night to acknowledge the team. It doesn't have to be a banquet, just have something to acknowledge the efforts of the players."

He said people had been asking him for weeks why he had quit and he had wanted to go on the record to let the fans know and to clarify that it was nothing to do with the players.

"I would not have resigned if they had shown some love and appreciation towards this team and to my cricket programme.

"When we won the Belco Cup in St. David's we came back to the club and there was nothing planned for us, then we won the two-day trophy - nothing, the league - nothing. The final straw was when we won the one-day trophy at the National Centre.

"The team said we know there is nothing there for us, so we went up to the Police Club for a couple of cocktails.

"If this would have been St. David's, St. George's, Bailey's Bay or Social Club they would have had a public holiday and celebrated for about a week. Success like this doesn't come too often. Your birthday comes once a year, Christmas comes once a year. How often do you win all the domestic trophies in one season."

Wade said he had enjoyed his time at Rangers and the players had been like a second family to him.

But he said he was now concentrating on his new role as assistant coach with the under-19s and advancing his coaching career within the national programe.

He said his ultimate ambition would be to coach the national team.

Janeiro Tucker is understood to have been offered the position of player/coach at Rangers.

We approached John Tucker, president of the club. But he was unable to get back to us by press time last night.[[In-content Ad]]

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