"I wish to point out that the players have, with much reluctance, agreed to participate in this tour. Much effort was required to persuade them to wear a sponsor’s logo without being the recipient of any benefits from such a sponsor." - Dinanath Ramnarine, President WIPA (according to Ryan Patrick).
The above quote is purportedly from Dinanath Ramnarine, President of the West Indies Players Association in a letter addressed to WICB President Ken Gordon about the just concluded tour to India. The document was obtained by CaribbeanCricket.com and its full text can be read here. The details of the reported dispute can be read in this article on CaribbeanCricket.com.
In a response, Tony Deyal of the WICB, in this Windies Cricket Google Group email, quoted Brian Lara -
"This series is very important. My understanding was that it was on the edge, might have been called off but we as players wanted this series really badly...".
Was any of this apparent dispute a demotivating factor for the West Indies players? Did it have anything to do with the West Indies yielding their highest ever total in an ODI in Nagpur (338) only to concede more a mere 3 matches later? Deyal argues that it was not. Personally, I am frustrated by these ongoing disputes between the players and the board. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the WICB and WIPA last year was supposed to end squabbles like this, but apparently it has not. Whatever the truth is, this whole situation is ugly for West Indies cricket and does not bode well for the World Cup.
- 767 reads
Post new comment