The West Indies tour of India ended prematurely amidst controversy and confusion.
What was meant to be a five-match One Day International series, followed by a solitary Twenty20 and then three test matches saw only three One Day Internationals played—there was meant to be a fourth, but it was cancelled due to a cyclone—and India leading the ODI series 2-1.
The tour fell apart amidst rumoured pay disputes in the West Indies camp. The players are angry at the way they have been treated by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and Dwayne Bravo announced that the players had decided to withdraw their services for the tour. He did point out that he and the other West Indies players were looking forward to representing their team in the future, however. At first, the WICB were considering putting out a replacement side, as they did during the West Indies’s humiliating series loss to minnows Bangladesh in 2009, as another player-board dispute caused the West Indies to play their youngsters, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided the team the West Indies would be able to offer would not be strong enough to play against India.
The BCCI said:
“The withdrawal gives little thought to the future of the game, the players and the long-standing relations between the BCCI and the WICB.”
Tension between the WICB and WIPA (West Indies Players’ Association) first arose when an agreement regarding pay and conditions was produced, but senior West Indies players, including captain Dwayne Bravo, refused to sign it. Bravo went as far as demanding WIPA chief and former West Indies opener Wavell Hinds resign.
Former West Indies fast bowler and cricketing legend Michael Holding said to Sky Sports:
“Unfortunately it’s come to the point where the players decided they were standing together, and they are totally dissatisfied with the way they have been treated.
“I have never seen anything like this happen in the past and I do not understand why the WICB have taken this stance.”
The last five years for the West Indies have been some of the weakest in their history: attendances at their test matches continue to dwindle; endless poor results have caused the team to slip to eighth in the Test and One Day International rankings and seventh in the Twenty20 rankings; the players and WICB never seem to be able to get on. These great islands dominated Cricket for years between the 1960s and 1990s and even since those glory days great players such as Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Courtney Walsh have continued to make the West Indies a respected team. However, affairs are at a very low ebb at the moment and the West Indies continue to spiral further and further downwards, despite having some of the best players in the world such as Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Sunil Narine, to name but a few.
The WICB must get its act together and allow the team to reach its full potential.
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