Dear Editor,
David White, New Zealand’s cricket chief said recently, “We`ve got a good relationship with our players’ association ‒ we`re on the same page. We all understand that we are a small country with a limited market and we’ve got to be pragmatic. We’re happy to let our players play in the IPL, of course, it’s great for them and the profile of our players, and where possible we let them play in other domestic competitions.” New Zealand’s cricket is now vibrant.
The people who control West Indies cricket have a poor relationship with the players. That has been the case for decades, although it appears worse today because of the opportunities provided to cricketers in other domestic competitions and because, as any reasonable person would have expected, after years of dominance almost unheard of in any sport, West Indies teams finally became losers. The players then became despised, and were treated as if they were totally responsible for the state of the game in the region.
There are now rules in place that exclude some of the best players from consideration foe selection, and those who are allowed to play receive minimal help.
In addition several promising players have, in frustration, given up on the game. Recently a tribunal rendered judgments in favour of two players, Sarwan and Simmons against the governing body for abusing their civil rights. One foreign journalist, Mark Nicholas, described the twenty over team which won the last world championship as “lacking in brains”, and an ICC official, David Richardson, who is one of the architects of the proposed two-tier Test system that is likely to result in the demotion of West Indies said that twenty over cricket suited their character. No West Indian cricket official and very few journalists seemed offended. Two of the most talented batsmen, the younger Bravo and Marlon Samuels, so badly need mental gymnastics that one wonders why it is not obvious that they need to be helped.
I hope the legends who apparently are still interested in the game can use the recent international successes to motivate the administrators to accept the moral responsibility to change their destructive uncompromising attitudes, or simply resign and go back to the occupations in which they were so good before getting in to administering West Indies cricket. It will do wonders for the region.
Yours faithfully,
Romain Pitt
