Officials of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) might have prevented the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) from pressing criminal charges against a local man who pulled a gun at a West Indian cricketer partying at a popular night club in the south of the island.

According to well-placed sources, the police decided not to press charges against the suspect who is employed at a popular St. George's firm due to the urgings of the WICB.

The incident occurred a few days before the West Indies played South Africa in a crucial Super Eight match at the newly rebuilt Cricket Stadium at Queen's Park, St. George's. A high-level source said that the WICB was reluctant for charges to be laid in light of the worldwide publicity the incident would have received due to the number of international media houses covering the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

"We did arrest the man but the (Cricket) Board people didn't want too much publicity with it", said a police source who asked not to be named. He identified the cricketer who was on the receiving end as Dwayne Bravo, the test all-rounder from Trinidad and Tobago.

The source could not say whether the incident was triggered by the local man's abhorrence at seeing Bravo and a group of West Indian players including Captain Brian Lara partying at a night club hours before a key match against the South Africans.

The Cricket World Cup has already been marred by the murder in Jamaica of Bob Woolmer, the South African-born coach of the Pakistan cricket team.

The source said that the incident was witnessed by a police officer who was also at the party held at the Bananas Restaurant & Club in the True Blue area."The police officer saw when the man put the gun on Bravo chest. He (the man) did not pull the trigger. He removed the gun and put it back in his waist", he added.

"When the policeman approached him and asked him for the gun, he threw it outside of the building in some nearby bushes. They went and search the bushes and got the gun", he said.

According to the source, the gun turned out to be a licensed firearm that was given to the suspect under the watch of a former Commissioner of Police."It is rather unfortunate that these fellars were given licence guns from ..... (name of Commissioner withheld)", he remarked.

The police force have allegedly withdrew the licence given to the suspect to carry firearms in the country. It is not clear whether the matter had been brought to the attention of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for review.