BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Cricket West Indies vice-presidential candidate, Dr Kishore Shallow, is not convinced the improved relationship between the board and players union, WIPA, is as healthy as is being purported.
Relations between the two bodies have been acrimonious in the past but in recent years have settled down, with CWI president Dave Cameron and WIPA president, Wavell Hinds – both Jamaicans – seemingly enjoying a productive relationship.
But Shallow said the cessation of hostilities between CWI and WIPA was not necessarily indicative of the players’ happiness with the way the board was being run.
“We’ve been misled somewhat to think there’s a great relationship with WIPA [because] of Dave Cameron and Wavell Hinds,” Shallow said during a cricket forum at the UWI Cave Hill Campus here earlier this week.
“We obviously know better. What is important is that we offer our players that sense of security.”
Pointing to the recent move by the board to retain the one-day players for the Twenty20 series against England, Shallow said the decision had lacked transparency, proper planning and had not gone down well with several specialist T20 players.
The board announced 24 hours before the opening T20 International on March 5 in St Lucia that the one-day squad would be kept together for the series, in order to further planning for the ICC World Cup in England later this year.
“This recent decision to have players, our one-day players, at the very last minute [retained for the T20 series], I can tell you that players all around the region on the weekend were wondering if they were going to be selected to play on Tuesday, for this T20 series,” Shallow told the audience.
“At the very last minute after sacrifices, they are told ‘no, you’re not playing because we’re keeping this group of players’. That cannot help the relationship between the board and players because while the selected players would have been happy for the opportunity, these are the specialists who have made great sacrifices and who will be disgruntled and lose trust in the board.”
West Indies subsequently suffered an embarrassing 3-0 whitewash, dismissed for historic lows of 45 and 71 in the second and third matches in St Kitts.
Shallow, the president of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, said CWI’s decision-making needed to be of such that it promoted trust with players.
“We have to start by being honest with the players,” Shallow contended. “We have to be consistent in our decision-making and we have to show that level of transparency in terms of how we make our decisions as a board.”
Shallow will be up against incumbent Emmanuel Nanthan at the March 24 CWI elections in Jamaica, while running mate Ricky Skerritt is challenging incumbent president Dave Cameron.
