Dear Editor,
It is disappointing enough to hear it from administrators, who need excuses for their own failures, but to hear old timers who had no alternative but to play for nothing, those who took the first opportunity to play for something when something became available, and fans who have never played the game at a high level, complain about players accepting offers to earn incomes beyond their wildest imaginations rather than remain eligible to play for the West Indies for modest remuneration, is downright upsetting. Then there are those who talk about the greed in the society as being reflected in the players’ decisions to accept such contracts. As one who was raised as a child in the Caribbean and spent his adult life in North America, the last adjective that comes to my mind in thinking about Caribbean working class people is greedy. As much as I want to see the West Indies do well in cricket internationally, I think the highest duty of West Indian cricket administrators is to do everything within their power to help their cricketers maximise their income by legitimate means. It is the responsibility of those administrators to struggle for better scheduling in top level cricket, so that those cricketers can both represent the region and do well for themselves and their families financially. It does not have to be one or the other.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
