‘There are times when you go to the airport and your ticket is not there. Then we call (Dinanath) Ramnarine (head of the players’ union) and he will buy a ticket’
PORT OF SPAIN, (Reuters) – West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, one of the players boycotting the current test with Bangladesh, has described the West Indies Cricket Board as being less organised than his local club team.
In an interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Express on Sunday, Bravo expressed his disillusionment with the administration of the game in the Caribbean noting kits arrived late for tournaments and players often found themselves at airports without tickets.
“They just do things badly. They send guys on tour two days before a series and stuff like your uniform arriving late. No one can actually believe how – the West Indies is the biggest, you can’t go bigger than that in the region but my club, Queen’s Park Cricket Club, is more organised than West Indies,” he said.
“There are times when you go to the airport and your ticket is not there. Then we call (Dinanath) Ramnarine (head of the players’ union) and he will buy a ticket.
“Sometimes you come back from tour – every time we travel we land in Barbados to get a connecting flight. The players go to the desk, no tickets there. You call Ramnarine. That’s what I’m talking about, the unprofessionalism,” he said.
The West Indies Cricket Board was not immediately available for comment yesterday.
Bravo said that when he was out injured for eight months last year he had to arrange for and pay for medical treatment.
“They got my surgery done for me. They paid for the flights and that was it. From the time I got back home my whole rehab programme was on my own, everything.
Bravo, who did not take part in the May tour of England but played in the lucrative Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, said he was saddened by finding himself on strike but said it was a matter of standing up for his rights.
“Basically you’re left to do a lot for yourself. They keep saying you’re a professional unit but do we get treated like a professional team? I don’t think so. A lot of the players feel the same way,” he said.
The flamboyant middle-order batsman and lively fast-medium bowler said that players who fell out of the test side were being ignored by the board.
“They come on the scene, show a lot of promise, get an injury or get dropped, no one has done anything to help them recover from their injury or get back in the game,” he said.
The Trinidadian said that the players were tired of seeing the differences between how they are treated and the situation of their opponents.
“We reach a stage in life now where we travel the world and seen how things are set up in different countries and you ask yourself, ‘Why? Why not back home by us?” he said.
The views of WICB by the players are similar to the views the regions people have of Caricom. Interestingly enough regionalist and other Caricom enthusiast, refer to the West Indies cricket team as a best practice to our “oneness”. Those of us who are not regionalist can also use the WICB and West Indies cricket to prove our points.
In his book Castro to Columbus, Eric Williams accuse Caribbean leaders of demonstrating a lack of interest in meeting the aspiration of their people.
Bravo clearly believes and demonstrates that the WICB is not meeting the aspirations of the players.
These guys are trouble makers, they have made it clear they don’t want to play for West Indies, all they want to do is wear the maroon sometimes to raise their IPL price.
The tag of trouble maker is always applied to the opponents of rank injustice. I remember a few years ago during a South African tour, two replacement players were flown to South Africa but no one was there to meet them at the airport, and they didn’t even know which hotel housed the team or if reservations had been made for them. That does not sound professional to me and players are right to withdraw their services. The results of the just ended test series is a testament to the ineptitude of the present W.I.C.B. They can’t be trusted with the organisation of a one car funeral.
Are there any similarities between WICB and WIPA (the players) compared to LIAT and the Pilot’s Association compared to CARICOM and its nationals? UWI students guild also have plenty negative to say about UWI. All of these institutions are touted as bastions of regional unity..hmmmmmmmmm.