West Indies Cricket Board president Dave Cameron said his administration is willing to compromise with the players in terms of the eligibility criteria for playing for the regional side and revealed that the WICB has held discussions about it with key marquee players.
Cameron was speaking during a WICB town-hall meeting in Preysal on Thursday night which was attended by Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board officials, club administrators, umpires, fans of the game and members of the local media.
Cameron and vice-president Emmanuel Nanton will return unopposed in their respective posts for a third consecutive term later this year.
The WICB selection policy stated that for players to be eligible to play in the various formats of the game for the West Indies, they have to play in the corresponding WICB regional tournaments.
This year off-spinner Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard were both unavailable for the Regional Super50 which means they will not be considered for selection for the West Indies One-day International squad.
However, Cameron revealed that after meeting with the players last year the WICB was willing to change the eligibility criteria and had asked the players for input.
“In 2016 we had another symposium with our players and we set out our way forward and we gave every player an opportunity to say how they felt about the West Indies Cricket Board and the fact that we changed the payment system and how they felt about it,” Cameron explained.
“And we had a meeting with Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Samuel Badree and myself and the vice president and two other board members. We came away from that meeting and we said to the players that we as an organisation are willing to change the eligibility criteria,” he said.
“We are willing to do all these things but we need time and we need a commitment that West Indies cricket is first. And if you as players don’t want to be part of this system then fine but let us not have the public rhetoric. If you have an issue, then speak to the hierarchy.
“We came away from that meeting very clear that as an institution going forward the West Indies Cricket Board’s core values is what we are living by. Those values are accountability, integrity, respect, excellence, teamwork, inclusiveness, innovation. Player, officials, administrators will have to live by those principles,” Cameron added.
He said the players did not get back to the Board about their suggestions to amend the rules of eligibility, however, he noted the WICB had discussed some amendments to be made.
“When we sat with the players in Florida we asked them to suggest how we should amend the rules of eligibility. Up to now they have not gotten back to us and we have actually taken the lead on that and we had a cricket committee meeting on the weekend, and proposals I made was discussed as well as other plans to take that forward,” Cameron revealed. (Trinidad Express)
