A former Cricket West Indies (CWI) official has sided with current CWI Director, Azim Bassarath in criticizing the board’s President Dave Cameron for his statement that the board would consider excluding Trinidad and Tobago’s Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo from future selection for the West Indies.
The three cricketers are at the centre of a storm of criticism in some cases and support in others for opting to ply their trade in the Pakistan Super League instead of representing the West Indies in their all-important ICC World Cup qualifying competition.
“I don’t know how that works to exclude players,” the former CWI official, who preferred not to be named, told Stabroek Sport.
“From what I know of what should obtain is that the selection panel is an autonomous body, virtually answerable to no one once they carry out the mandate of the Board be it in the context of having to play a certain amount of games for selection or having to reach a fitness criteria.”
“So, for the President [Cameron] to say what he said, then I don’t know how that works if the players make themselves available,” the former official added.
According to the former official Cameron may be overstepping his boundaries if indeed he takes such a course of action, are there is no jurisprudence to instruct the selectors to do such.
It now begs the question if it is an ongoing practice to instruct the selectors who to select, he said.
As it relates to the comments made by the outspoken, discarded all-rounder, Dwayne Bravo who earlier this week accused the Board of using the senior players as scapegoats for its ‘muddled selection policy’, the former official said he agreed with Bravo that the selection policies of the board were inconsistent.
“I think I can agree, there isn’t a selection policy,” he said, adding “I don’t think there is a section policy. What has happened, is that the selection policy over the years was not being enforced.”
He did, however, contend that the players perhaps should have considered playing the Qualifiers but contended that the saga was due to something deeper, tracing along personal lines.
According to the former official, the fractured relationship with the players will have to be repaired if the issues on the field are to be rectified. The situation is one that is counterproductive with the Board aiming to pull the Caribbean side out of its rot and not having the best players to do so, he argued.
He recommends an approach where players are allowed to earn as in the case of New Zealand, England and Australia while being able to represent their countries.
The ICC, which is perhaps feeling the revenue loss from bilateral tours that run alongside highly viewed leagues like the Indian Premier League, have made provisions for the IPL to now be formally recognized.
The Indian showpiece will now feature in the ICC’s tour programme and will see a break in international cricket during that two-month period for which it played.
That solution is a move in the right direction, however, it is unclear whether the fractured relationship between the players and officials of West Indies Cricket will be repaired in time to benefit from that new development, said the former official.
