The death of West Indies Test cricket

Samuels said the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is not at fault since the players are upset with Hinds over the terms and conditions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), signed recently between the WICB and WIPA.

Today, West Indies cricket is in a crisis mode, given the action taken by players to abort their 2014 cricket tour of India.

Reportedly, the players left the tour because they felt the signed Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was not done within their best interest.

The players argued that their earnings would be drastically reduced and moreover were hoodwinked by their union representative who signed off on an agreement which in principle was not what was initially agreed to before they left the shores of the Caribbean for India.

However, a number of people have viewed the players’ action as one of greed and lack of socio-political and cultural awareness. Others have blamed the WICB and WIPA for their incompetent governance, lack of diplomacy, and myopic view in treating with the impasse.

On the radio program, Mason & Guest, in addressing the current crisis, well known lecturer in Political Sociology and an avid cricket enthusiast, Dr. Christine Cummings lamented the level to which West Indies cricket has sunken and argued for the wholesale resignation of the WIPA and WICB leadership.

Asked if she was embarrassed by the current situation in West Indies cricket, “No, I am not embarrassed,” she proffered.

She said further, “One, I am an optimist and two, in reality perhaps when the eyes of the world are gazing at us and recognizing our incompetence which many of us have been calling out for years almost decades, then maybe we will wake, maybe we will be dragged screaming into the business of sports.”

She questioned the business model for which everyone has been clamoring and whether the players were entitled to the benefits of this model. She also bemoaned the fact that the region has never run cricket properly as today, there are only few local sponsors, absence of a league and lack of revenues generated by clubs.

Furthermore, she said, “At the end of the day we are trying to operate an international sport literally on the back of these players.”

Cummings stated that currently West Indies cricket is bedeviled by an increase in the level of conflict of interest and surmise that this is what has led to the current impasse.

“I am fed up with the plantation approach to business in this region and our inability and lack of capacity to organize ourselves in a modern world,” she said.

She further argued that the players are currently being shafted and money is readily siphoned off to meet increased WICB administrative cost.

In addition, she noted that players needed guidance and were wrong to have left the Caribbean without a signed contract.
thereadersbureau.com

Dave Cameron, president of the West Indies Cricket Board should resign immediately for his lack of leadership and foresight and for neglecting to address the urgent issues in India, immediately as they occurred.

The truth is that the WICB had an idea that the senior players were not happy about some of the terms of the contract, which was openly being discussed before they were actually received but the WICB, as is their nature, did nothing about it.
TRINIDAD GUARDIAN

International cricket tours have been abandoned halfway through before. But there’s always been some sort of external reason.

But when the West Indies walked out of its ongoing tour of India after four of the five scheduled One-Day Internationals, with one final ODI, a single Twenty20 and three Tests still to come, it was for entirely different, wholly internal reasons—ones that could potentially destabilize West Indies cricket to devastating effect.

This particular fire in Babylon was ignited when the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players Association, the union that represents the players, signed a collective bargaining agreement and memorandum of understanding on Sept. 18.

At the time, WICB President Whycliffe Cameron said it was the most important move Caribbean cricket had made in the past couple of years, spreading money more evenly among domestic as well as international players.

Then in early October, the players, represented by ODI captain Dwayne Bravo, sent a letter to the WIPA president and chief executive, Wavell Hinds, claiming that he’d signed the agreement without consulting them or gaining their consent.

The letter alleges that under the new agreement the players would lose 75% of their international match fees, all compensation for the use of their commercial rights, and most of their fees from participating in ICC tournaments. The players asked to return to the old payment structure until the dispute was resolved. The two sides began holding talks this week.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

these talks are really stalled

Certainly there has to be a broadening of stakeholder representation in West Indies cricket. And, in the day-to-day administration, there must be a strong, professional secretariat suitably accountable to stakeholders, but with an assured mandate to act, without constantly looking over its shoulder.