The way I read it he has resigned the club chairman Dan
"The way I read it, he has resigned," the club chairman, Dan McCauley said. There would be no solicitors present."Meanwhile, Plymouth are bracing themselves to counter Shilton's claims. In additon, Morrison revealed his client would not be attending a planned disciplinary hearing today "because he is no longer an employee of the club."However, Ivor Jones, one of three directors due to preside at the hearing, said: "I feel it would be in his own interests to attend so he could put his side of the argument. By their behaviour the club has discharged the contract."Shilton, 45, also issued a writ against the club yesterday, seeking damages for breach of contract after they had not reinstated him as manager by a 5pm Monday deadline.
Yesterday, however, the rift between club and manager became permament. "Plymouth Argyle have broken his contract," Michael Morrison, of Shilton's Manchester-based solicitors, Gorner and Company, said, "and therefore he has terminated his employment as a response to their breach of contract."Technically, Peter Shilton has not resigned. The tour opener, a one-day game against a Festival XI, is in Hamilton on Sunday. The messy and acrimonious separation of Peter Shilton and Plymouth Argyle became official yesterday when the manager formally resigned. The issue of whether he was pushed or jumped will now become the point of contention. The former England goalkeeper, who took charge at Home Park in March 1992, was suspended on full pay last week after failing to meet a deadline to pay an outstanding tax demand of £50,000. He is having blood tests and the last time we spoke with him he was very positive," Holford said.In the continued absence of Richie Richardson, Courtney Walsh will lead the 14-man squad in the two Test matches and three one-day internationals, and Curtly Ambrose returns following a shoulder injury which kept him out of the India tour.New Zealand, who recently lost 2-1 in South Africa, were the last to beat the West Indies in a Test series, in 1979-80, and the West Indies have not won a series there since 1955.
The team manager, David Holford, said the Kent all-rounder is recovering from a mystery illness picked up in India, where the West Indies drew their three-Test series, and would join the party in a few days."We discovered it only when we got to England. But that's life and you have to come back from such things."Lewis remains one of the great unfulfilled talents of English cricket. On occasions he has looked the best all-rounder since Ian Botham, but for every good performance there have been two or three lacklustre ones.Now, with England undecided about how to replace Gough and uncertain whether Fairbrother will recover quickly from a shoulder injury, he could find himself a candidate for the final two Tests.The selectors will make a decision on Lewis's immediate future at the end of the World Series campaign.n The West Indies arrived in Auckland yesterday minus Carl Hooper for the start of their tour of New Zealand. That set me back, but by the end of the season I was playing some of the best cricket ofmy career and I was disappointed to be left out of the squad for this tour. Lewis, having had a reasonably successful tour of the West Indies a year ago, played in the first of last summer's Texaco Trophy internationals and impressed the new chairman of selectors, Raymond Illingworth, with his three-wicket performance against New Zealand.He seemed likely to appear in the first Test but then ran into more injury problems, saw Phillip DeFreitas take his position and never got back into the frame."If I hadn't been injured during the early part of last season I think I would probably have held my place," Lewis said "Instead, other people came in and did well. But it's up to me to make the most of this chance."Lewis was pressed into service as a substitute fielder during Tuesday night's World Series Cup victory over Australia after Neil Fairbrother had joined Gough on the casualty list.