India should be trying to help save West Indian cricket
Instead of threatening measures that would severely damage cricket in the Caribbean, the BCCI has a choice, writes Ian Herbert in the Independent
27-Oct-2014
Instead of threatening to sue the WICB and cut off bilateral tours to the West Indies, measures that would severely damage cricket in the Caribbean, the BCCI has a choice, writes Ian Herbert in the Independent: "either to stride off over the horizon with England and Australia, leaving the West Indies shrivelling to irrelevance in its wake; or to show some philanthropy and help nurture a once-proud competitor."
The West Indians command none of that territory after the farcical failure of the game's governing body in the Caribbean and its leader, Whycliffe "Dave" Cameron, to anticipate the storm clouds that have been gathering over wages. "President Cameron", as he defines himself on Twitter was retweeting philosophical quotes from Nelson Mandela and others when the storm was brewing, rather than taking a flight to India to sort it out.
The roots of the problem are also located in the fact that the West Indies is a fictional concept. "It's the only thing we do together," Michael Holding says of cricket in Fire in Babylon and the islands have certainly become more fragmented and mutually hostile. Witness Trinidad and Barbados recently refusing entry to and deporting Jamaicans. In the current conflict, the players' union leader Wavell Hinds - a Jamaican - seems to have cut a deal with the West Indian Cricket Board that favours the second level of players, including lots of hungry Jamaicans, against the most established stars like Bravo, of Trinidad.