Michael Muirhead, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on Saturday confirmed that there will be no further home Tests for the year.
This means that West Indies will have played a total of four Tests by the end of this year, including Tests away to New Zealand in December 2013.
Saturday at a press conference at Hyatt Regency Hotel on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain that followed a Board meeting at the same venue—the first since Dave Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan were elected as WICB president and vice-president respectively last month—Muirhead said he expected the tour to go ahead, but without any Tests.
“The Pakistan issue, it’s fair to say that we haven’t completely concluded negotiations or the final dates, but we’re confident that will be done shortly,” Muirhead told reporters. “It won’t be a Test series anymore; we’re going to be focussing on five ODIs and two T20s.
We have just not finalised with Pakistan, them signing off on the schedule we have been provided.”
Asked how the WICB felt about the number of Tests allocated to the regional team, Cameron—who along with Nanthan attended the press conference—said they were “not satisfied”.
“I don’t think we are satisfied, but circumstances have dictated for this year that that’s what we’re able to put in, and hopefully we’re going to able to build on that next year.”
Earlier this month, PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf, blamed West Indies’ upcoming tri-nation series—also involving India and Sri Lanka—starting in June, for creating difficulty in finding a window for the Tests.
Speaking on other matters, Cameron said the WICB and WIPA are hoping to complete a new Memorandum of Understanding/Collective Bargaining Agreement (MOU/CBA) within the next three months.
“WIPA has indicated that they would like to negotiate and finalise an agreement by July 31. We are committed as well,” Cameron stated. “We’ve had the makings of negotiations that started, we have agreements, and we will be using those to move things quickly ahead.”
Nanthan, meanwhile, is “very impressed” with the administration of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB).
“…I think the work they are doing shows that good work is coming out of Trinidad, and we actually asked a number of the other territories and the other boards to look at what is happening in Trinidad.”
(Trinidad Express)
