West Indies legend, Andy Roberts has criticised Cricket West Indies’ decision to tour England amid the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in light of the tour not benefitting them financially.
Roberts was speaking on the West Indies three-Test tour to England which will see them subjected to a 14-day quarantine and playing under a bio-secure atmosphere.
This publication recently reported Chief Executive Officer of CWI, Johnny Grave as confirming that the West Indies will not benefit financially from the tour.
“I don’t have a problem with them negotiating to go to England but what I have a problem with is there is a talk West Indies are not going to benefit from this tour financially,” Roberts said.
The former Antigua fast bowler explained that he thinks going on the tour…“should be a mistake because the chances we are going to take I don’t think much more countries are willing to take that chance.”
According to Grave under the ICC Future Tours Programme and the World Test Championship, income generated from a series is retained by the home board.
“Our revenue is therefore restricted to the sponsorship money we receive from our team sponsors,” he had said.
The 69-year-old Roberts also spoke of a loan from the ECB to CWI.
“There are also rumours that one of the reasons West Indies undertake this tour is because it was a loan of £3M million from the ECB [England Cricket Board] some time and I think now that shouldn’t be a loan, that should be a gift to the West Indies Cricket Board for that risk they are willing to take.”
Roberts revealed that the ECB is set to save £380M but will stand to lose it if no one tours.
“We are taking the chances nobody else is willing to take and why are we taking the chance is to save England at least £380M because if no one goes to England they have to pay back that money and they are not willing to pay it back so why should we be a guinea pig and go sacrifice ourselves for nothing and if the Cricket Board indeed got the loan and find themselves in a bind they should come and explain to the public this is the reason we had to undertake that tour don’t just sit back and allow us to speculate,” Roberts stated.
Grave had also confirmed to this publication that indeed CWI took a loan from ECB. He related in May the Caribbean board took “a short-term interest-free advance of US$3M from the ECB guaranteed to be paid back by the ICC in July.”
However, Roberts did acknowledge he “more or less have sympathy on them because of the financial bind they are in right now…I think West Indies should have benefitted from this tour financially not just the three million pounds but you save England £380M, you know that’s a lot of savings…if they are not going to benefit then I have a problem with it, why take the risk and sacrifice the guys for it?”
