PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies’ practice game against a Trinidad and Tobago XI next Tuesday has been placed in doubt because of the involvement of exiled left-hander Darren Bravo.
The NewsDay here reported yesterday that Cricket West Indies were upset over the inclusion of Bravo in the T&T squad and have indicated to the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board that the 28-year-old should not be allowed to play because of his current impasse with the board.
However, the report said several of the senior T&T players were displeased by the development and planned to boycott the game if Bravo is barred from taking part.
TTCB chief executive, Suruj Ragoonath, confirmed CWI’s concerns about Bravo’s participation and about the use of the National Cricket Centre as the venue for the game, and said he was working to resolve both issues.
Darren Bravo … at the centre of controversy again.
“At this point in time, Darren Bravo is in our squad,” Ragoonath told the NewsDay.
“They (CWI) do [have concerns about that]. I’m working towards resolving that.
“But the bigger issue right now is the venue. The West Indies board has an issue with playing at the NCC. What exactly is the nature of it, I’m not sure.”
The NCC is reguarly used to by CWI to host matches in the regional first class championship and Regional Super50.
CWI remains miffed by Bravo’s refusal to apologise and remove a tweet in which he labelled president Dave Cameron as “a big idiot”, following a spat last year over the issuing of retainer contracts last November.
As a result, he has been barred from playing domestic and international cricket and has not played competitively since being sent home last November from South Africa ahead of the Tri-Nations Series in Zimbabwe.
In a recent interview, Cameron again insisted Bravo needed to remove the offending tweet from his Twitter account before a resolution could be had.
Bravo recently slapped CWI with a lawsuit over damages arising from loss of earnings.
Tuesday’s 50-over match was expected to provide match practice for the Windies side, currently gathered here for the five-match series against India starting here Friday with a doubleheader at Queen’s Park Oval.
West Indies stars like Lendl Simmons, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree are expected to feature for the T&T XI in the game.
