IT was inevitable that it would come to this.
Seemingly taking note of Clive Lloyd’s comment that the West Indies appeared “drunk on T20s” during their two massive Test defeats in India last November and of the Indian board’s ban on its players from participating in any T20 franchise tournament outside of its Indian Premier League (IPL), the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) decided in March to follow India’s lead.
It directors adopted the proposal from the recent director of cricket, Richard Pybus, for what he termed a ‘West Indies Team First’ selection policy. It was one of the several issues covered in his commissioned report on the restructuring of domestic and international cricket.
“WICB to prioritise West Indies Cricket, domestic and international,” Pybus advised. “Eliminate participation of international players in other countries’ T20 competitions to prioritise the skills development necessary for West Indies to achieve their vision goals.”
The IPL is the biggest, most popular and wealthiest of such leagues. Through it, Chris Gayle and Keiron Pollard have become as popular as Bollywood screen stars and almost as rich. They and ten other West Indians were contracted by franchises in the 2014 edition, the seventh.
On a lesser scale, Australia’s Big Bash, England’s T20 Blast, South Africa’s Ram Jam and the Bangladesh Premier League also attract international players, West Indians among them.
The recently created, privately financed Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has brought an IPL model to the region, providing local players with experience of a crucial format, exposure to new, international teammates and welcome pay-days.
On the precept that there can always be too much of a good thing, the WICB decided that the CPL
