Anthony Foster, Gleaner Writer

Courtney Walsh, who lost his bid for president of Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), has warned some of his former playing mates that he will not tolerate hypocrites.

Walsh, who played 132 Test matches for the West Indies and took 519 wickets, seems to have fallen out of grace with his former teammates leading up to Thursday's JCA presidential elections at the Jamaica Pegasus.

"A few people who I played the game with have not spoken to me during the election (campaign), so I hope they don't come to speak to me after the elections," warned Walsh.

"I don't like two-sided people. I spoke to everybody open minded. When you play the game with people you expect them to show the respect for the game and I hope they don't try to be hypocrites, because I don't like that ... I am going to be straightforward and just move on," he said.

After months of heated campaigning, Walsh lost the elections 50-47 to Paul Campbell, who was first vice-president to Jackie Hendriks.

Walsh, who took 227 wickets in 204 ODIs, said he learnt a lot from the election campaign.

"What I learned from this campaign is, I got calls and kudos from all around the world, but here in Jamaica it did not happen. So people on the worldwide stage would have probably voted for me, but my own Jamaicans didn't, but that is life," he said.

To focus on youth development

Despite the defeat, Walsh said he would still be involve in cricket, but not at the forefront.

"I am not going to focus on the national level. I am going to go back to my youth development and work with the Under-15s, the youngsters and the school cricket and put all my energies and resources there.

"I also said in my campaign that it's not about getting to the national level and working from there, itÕs building from the grassroots. I will go and work with the people who care about the cricket."

Reflecting on the campaign, he added: "I am just happy that I put up the challenge. Cricket will be better for it in the long run because whatever was happening we weren't happy, so people will have to pull up their socks ."