'WICB pushes things to the brink'

Amidst yet another "crisis" between West Indies players and the WICB, Michael Holding writes in his column for Wisden India, how the board has allowed for such a situation to come up again, despite being familiar with such issues in the past. Holding says the WICB and the WIPA should have taken better steps to avoid the curtailment of their tour of India.

The problem with West Indies is that the WICB always pushes things to the brink and waits till the last moment. That's why so many tours begin with players having not yet signed tour contracts. This MoU was signed in September. Why didn't the players know exactly what was in the MoU until they got to India at the end of the month? Why weren't all the players e-mailed the MoU? I'm sure the WIPA and the WICB have e-mails and contacts of all the players. But no. They wait until they get to India, and then try to manipulate the players. They had all the leadup time before the first ODI to try and iron something out but no, no compromise. From the very first instance the prospect of the players striking came up, on October 7 as the BCCI release says, the WICB/Cameron were willing to cancel the tour immediately. The WICB have not denied it. As a matter of fact, the WICB have not even mentioned the BCCI press release. All they've done is put out another press release to divert attention from the BCCI release and of course trying their very best to blame the players. Again, dishonest.