By Orin Davidson
If ever there is an explanation for the banana republic status of the West Indies Region as a whole, one needs look no further than the current state of its cricket affairs.
The one unifying element comprising representatives from almost every territory —- the cricket team and its administrators, have just collaborated to showcase why the Region is left stuck in underdevelopment while most of the rest of the world are racing by from poverty to prosperity
These days the missteps can no longer be deemed bombshell developments, occurring with such regularity, it is no surprise when the 
next embarrassing act presents itself.
Yet the latest boneheaded move is so incredible, it very difficult to comprehend.
The abandonment of the tour of India by the Regional team, so senseless in nature, has the potential to top every previous blunder dropped on West Indies cricket, primarily because of the consequences.
From all appearances, based on the emails published, ODI team captain Dwayne Bravo instigated and led the execution of the abandonment. He heads the list of culprits to be blamed, by a long way with the West Indies Cricket Board, whose failure to avert the curtailment, bringing up the rear.
At the end of the day, West Indies cricket could likely suffer irreparable harm and Bravo and whatever team members who encouraged and supported him will forever bear responsibility for striking West Indies cricket, already on its knees from circumstances on and off the field, something akin to a death blow.
To walk out of any competition, moreso in a professional setting is the greatest cardinal sin a sportsman can commit. Despite the anger with whatever match play pay cuts and other reduced benefits the players were faced with, abandonment of a tour is as primitive an act today as it would’ve been when West Indies first played in 1938.
Once you start a contest you continue to end it regardless, then deal with the problems afterwards. And with West Indies standing to gain massive revenue benefits playing India there and at home, which now all seems lost, the team’s action would be a candidate for a Guinness Book of Records all time sports blunder.
Despite his 31 years and 10-year professional career, Bravo displayed an incredible lack of respect for the sport, his employers on the WICB, the West Indies fans, the Indian fans and the Board for Cricket Control of India (BCCI).
It seemed his brain cells became frozen in the bright Indian sunshine within the last week as his inability to foresee the backlash from his and the team’s decision makers, beggars belief.
This was not just an `A’ team series, or one against Zimbabwe —-the sport’s biggest minnow, this was walking out on a road series against India, which literally owns the world game financially and politically. The vast amounts of money at stake now lost by the host country, has left the BCCI in such justifiable fury, massive lawsuits to regain as much as US$61 million lost, are reportedly planned. And more personally to Bravo and the other ringleaders, the hurt they have inflicted on their individual careers could haunt them the rest of their lives.
The list of ramifications are endless at this stage, and one is forced to question the effectiveness of the retainer contracts the players have with the WICB. When one now hears about tour contracts which according to Bravo, they were told not to sign by Wavell Hinds of the WIPA, prior to the recent unveiling of the contentions Memorandum of Understanding , you get the impression the retainer contracts are merely sheets of paper with little or no value.
In real professional sports settings, breaking a contract could result in career ending penalties.
And regardless of how meagre the retainer contracts are in terms of value, a contract is a contract and Bravo and his cohorts should be made to suffer the consequences.
Also, the all-rounder is sure to make himself persona non grata with India’s cricket which could result in devastating consequences for his future career in the IPL and related T20 competitions there. The BCCI owns the IPL and don’t be surprised if his contract with Chennai Super Kings is dissolved, regardless of who owns the team, and he never plays another game in the world’s most lucrative cricket series. India cricket officials are huge malice bearers, exemplified by the debarment of Pakistan players from the IPL, because of longstanding differences between the two countries.
When you think of Bravo’s lucrative endorsement contract with China Harbor, the harm he has inflicted on his brand, with the pullout could be another massive price he will pay. Businesses pay sportsmen to be good ambassadors, not only for their products, but also with their respective disciplines too, and Bravo surely didn’t display such qualities in India.
By now he should realize his actions didn’t hurt WIPA as much as he hurt himself and West Indies cricket.
As a result the powers that be, in the WICB would be justified in handing Bravo and his supporters in the team, hefty fines and possible suspensions.
Shockingly, too is the out –of- blue transformation of Bravo from the seemingly carefree player, always with a smile on the field, when the going is good, and annoyingly when he messes up.
Bravo was never the militant type and the language in his emails to Hinds and the WICB president, reflect the confrontational style of the previous WIPA president. And there is something eerily familiar with this walkover as was the case with previous standoffs between the team and its employers.
If the talk being bandied about of Bravo being influenced from the outside, his reputation as a player, not to mention his standing as independent thinking man, has gone way down the gutter.
Not so much more surprising is role the WICB played in allowing this mind- blowing flouting of a team’s obligation to its sport.
India Board secretary Sanjay Patel, correctly laid the blame for the fiasco squarely at the WICB’s feet and his threats of a pullout of India’s reciprocal tour the Region in 2016 and a possible total blacklisting form competition by India, could’ve been avoided with strong leadership by the regional body.
Instead WICB president Wycliffe “Dave” Cameron added fuel to the fire with a big stick approach to the players’ concerns with that emailed response to the players, which reeked of confrontation, rather than conciliation.
Cameron stated unequivocally that the Board was not interested in talking to the players directly to revolve anything, and was sticking to the agreements made with the WIPA.
Given the history of disagreements on money with the players in the past, Cameron’s stance was a shocking display of ineptitude by someone vested with the authority to lead a difficult organization that requires administrative intelligence, diplomacy and lots of business acumen.
In his short stint so far as president Cameron has displayed little of those qualities and now finds himself responsible for letting the WICB fall into a deeper quagmire of problems it has ever faced.
A US $65 million lawsuit by the BCCI and a ban from international competition are now the latest threats the WICB finds itself facing by the failure to control its employees.
Why Cameron didn’t anticipate the walkout by the players and the subsequent fallout with the BCCI, are questions only he could answer. But it is clearly evident, the president isn’t thus equipped, because he should’ve been on the first plane to Kochi to calm things down, when Bravo started hinting of a strike, before the first One Day game. Leadership entails spotting potential problems and making direct interventions to avoid pitfalls. A president is elected for a good reason, which surely isn’t to attend swanky ICC Dubai dinner parties there, and around the cricket world.
When star batsman Brian Lara threatened to quit a West Indies tour of England early in his career, WICB president Peter Short, hurried over to England to coax the young player to stay put and he eventually did.
Those were the days, now it’s the high-handed approach which started with the previous WICB leadership and is continuing with Cameron, one of the remnants from that regime. It was not too long ago, the same Cameron made veiled threats of banishing Guyana from Region cricket after disrespecting the Guyana Government president’s office with uncalled for demands.
Clearly authority went to his head real fast, but now Cameron’s WICB is beginning to look sillier than ever, playing the blame game while bombarding the Regional news agencies with a steady stream of media releases.
This is what the morons in the West Indies Board’s directorate who deemed Cameron the best leader around by voting him in as president, are rewarding the West Indies cricket public.
In cricket today, powerful India gets whatever it wants, and West Indies will never emerge from its latest quagmire unless a despised Cameron and his decision makers on the WICB, pack their briefcases and get the hell out of West Indies cricket.
Running Kingston Cricket Club surely can’t prepare anyone for managing a multi-million dollar business.
