Dear Editor,
I firmly support the suggestion that businesses should not sponsor a second-string West Indies cricket team to the upcoming ICC One-day tournament in South Africa. Indeed, I go further to recommend that Digicel should seriously question the advisability of maintaining their sponsorship agreements with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). There should also be no coverage by television or radio entities of any matches involving the West Indies team.
The WICB’s selection of the same team – with but a few exceptions – that was soundly thrashed by lowly Bangladesh is not only an insult to West Indies cricket fans but also to those of the other countries taking part in the tournament. Moreover, it is a slap in the face of
mediator Sir Shridath Ramphal, who clearly admonished the board to select “the best West Indies team available… notwithstanding the on-going mediation process” between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
As far as I am aware, it is the common practice (if not the law) that following a strike, workers are required to indicate their intention to resume work pending mediation. Employ-ers are bound to accept them back at work without prejudice to the negotiation process and any backlogs are got rid of immediately. In the present cricket scenario, the players who were on strike (the workers) immediately made themselves available pending the negotiation process but were in this instance arrogantly and apparently spitefully ignored. Isn’t this a glaring case of contempt of court?
It would appear that both the WICB president Julian Hunte and WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine are suffering from super-inflated egos and, in the present circumstances should both remove themselves from the West Indies cricket scene before they do irreparable damage to West Indies cricket. Their stubborn, adversarial and spiteful attitudes portend nothing good for West Indies cricket. Indeed, it was shockingly bumptious of Dr Hunte to stand for re-election as president of the WICB while, I should think, the players could have done themselves a world of good by asking Ramnarine to recuse himself from the negotiations and secure the services of a trained negotiator to represent them.
As a corollary to the above, the other board members should resign en bloc to allow for the complete reorganization of the WICB, using the PJ Patterson Report as a guideline (perhaps the Caricom Secretariat’s assistance could be sought to oversee the restructuring process, as this affects the people of the entire West Indies and not any one individual or territory). One is left to wonder why the current board president as well as the other members are so stubbornly resisting the changes recommended by the Patterson Committee which they themselves set up! It is hoped that they have nothing to hide, as the people of the West Indies want answers to a lot of questions.
It would be poetic justice if the international Cricket Board (ICC) should reject the makeshift team chosen by the WICB because, if Bangladesh has not been allowed to play in the upcoming championship tournament, neither should this sub-standard WI team (weren’t they soundly beaten by Bangladesh?), so whom can they now beat?
Yours faithfully,
George Moore
