Former Guyana and West Indies Captain Ramnaresh Sarwan has openly criticized the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) executives for what he described as painting bad pictures of its players over the years.
Sarwan, during an exclusive media briefing yesterday at his Gym Fitness 53, said the WICB should take full responsibility for their faults and stop painting bad images of its cricketers.
Following the West Indies men and women’s teams winning respective World T20 titles last Sunday, Captain Darren Sammy spoke his mind during the post-match presentation as well as senior all-rounder Dwayne Bravo who too aired his views openly regarding what they deem as willful mistreatment by the WICB.
Since then, it’s been a back and forth scenario between the board and players with both parties lashing out at each other through various interviews and social media. Sarwan in response to the question what was his opinion of the situation said: “I’m happy that West Indies won, I would like to congratulate (Darren) Sammy as well as the women on a wonderful tournament.
“In terms of the interview, Sammy was spot on. For years, the West Indies administrators and directors or whatever you would call them tend to do a lot of stuff and get away with it. During the period That I have played as well we had a lot of strikes to highlight those same things and it seems like nothing has changed.
The right-hander was also in full support of CARICOM who are currently embroiled in another tussle with the WICB regarding control of the sport, saying: “I think once CARICOM gets involved and puts their foot down they will find a solution, because as I said before I don’t think it’s a lack of talent I think we just don’t have the right people managing cricket.”
A veteran of 181 One Day Internationals and 87 Tests, Sarwan said that he doesn’t think that the issues between the players and the board is
financially related as the WICB makes it out to be, but rather it’s a simple case of players being taken advantage of by the ones who are supposed to be looking out for their well-being.
“Of course it’s not the players. I’ve been in the position, I’ve experienced it and I can guarantee you that it’s not about the money. Chris Gayle, Dwayne
Bravo and Sammy, these guys have big contracts in the IPL (Indian Premier League). I think its principle you don’t want to find yourself in a place where you undersell players and that’s something the WICB has been doing over and over.”
He continued, “I was there when I experienced it so I’m aware of those situations because they paint this picture that the players are money hounds which I strongly believe is not the case.
Dwayne, Darren and Chris would have mentioned before that those are the pictures they’re trying to paint because when we had strikes those were the same pictures they tried to paint.
“They are just trying to cover up the way they have been managing West Indies cricket, they don’t want to accept their faults and that’s due to the fact that they feel they’re untouchable so they would not look into it. Some of them are very nasty and vindictive. I think I can go through a list of players they have done that to.
The former Guyana Amazon Warriors captain said that numerous issues, some of which range from printing of shirts, going to the airport only to find out that there isn’t any ticket among other forms of shoddy treatment have been going on long but thanks to social media and players reaching their breaking point, more and more flaws are being exposed.
From a general perspective, Sarwan believes that the WICB top men should look to rectify their own problems because it’s unfair when players have to take the brunt of the abuse when rumors of delinquency and callousness are attached to them because the ones in charge fail to accept their own errors.
