These are early days yet for judging the impact of the new, enthusiastically heralded West Indies Cricket Board’s Professional Cricket League (PCL). What is certain is that things haven’t gone as planned.
Even before the 90 recently contracted pros, each now potentially earning basic fees of between US$33,500 and US$53,900 a year, could step onto the field, the six franchises baulked at the idea of free movement between teams.
Only two players from the five each franchise was obliged to place into a draft were chosen by coaches and selectors who preferred to keep their squads of 15 exclusively home-based.
As it turned out, a chronic back injury immediately eliminated Ramnaresh Sarwan, the most experienced on the list with his 83 Tests, who had transferred from Guyana to Trinidad and Tobago. All-rounder Raymon Reifer (Barbados to Guyana) was the only mover.
Such exchanges were one of the tenets of the makeover.
“It is a deliberate attempt to move away from just saying that you have to be born within the territory to play for that franchise,”