(Trinidad Guardian) The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has written to four regional governments, asking for their support in the upcoming four-Test series against India. The series, scheduled for July/August, may see matches being played in T&T, Guyana, St Lucia and Jamaica if the Board gets approval from the governments.
Guardian Media understands that the WICB wrote to the governments, asking them to indicate their willingness to host the matches despite a Caricom that has been openly calling for the dissolution of the WICB.
It took good negotiating skill on the part of the West Indies to get approval from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for their team to tour the Caribbean and resume bi-lateral relations which was severed after the West Indies abandoned a tour of India in 2014.
Coming out of that Indian fiasco, Caricom and the WICB put together a committee to look at the governance of West Indies cricket. They recommended that the WICB be dissolved. Caricom has since been pushing for that although the WICB has been holding strong.
Prior to the start of the ICC World T20 in India, which the West Indies won, the players threatened to pull out over salary structure and again Caricom called for the dissolution of the board.
As a result, the WICB is worried as to whether the leaders in the different countries would support cricket under their auspices being played in their respective country. Due to this, the board has been unable to release fixtures, saying that it will be done soon
The Government of T&T is likely to allow a Test match here, with a top official saying that Government would not stand in the way of cricket. The WICB needs governments’ support to host the Test matches because they will need certain concessions in order to make it feasible to host the matches.
They can ill-afford any hiccups with this Indian visit given the recent history of the field concerning the two boards.
