After a couple of weeks of trading verbal volleys, and losing two test matches to the lowly Bangladesh, sense has finally prevailed and the main-stream West Indian team has ended their strike. This means that the likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul will be eligible for selection for the ODIs against Bangladesh.
This latest development has happened after the appointment of an arbitrator to settle the dispute that had been raging between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players’ Association. With both sides not ready to blink first, there was another meeting organised between both the entities and Guyana president Bharat Jagdeo, who is also chairman of the 15-nation trading bloc Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM).
Earlier, the Guyanese President had been asked to intervene by the WIPA and he called for a meeting with the warring parties separately. Jagdeo met the parties and came up with this suggestion which was accepted by the two. Now, former Commonwealth secretary general Shridath Ramphal has been appointed as the arbitrator.
The West Indian Cricket Board had announced a weakened side for the first two ODIs against Bangladesh. Also, the WICB had named an almost unheard of, 30-member squad for the Champions Trophy, before wanting to prune it down further to the 15-member squad.
Our Take on This
While it is all hunky-dory to hear a fairy-tale ending to this problem, it is pertinent that the arbitrators get to the root of the problem and try to solve that. And the root lies in the fact that neither do the West Indian cricketers have contracts, and nor do they get paid too much to be able to live a comfortable life off cricket alone. Here, we are not referring to a Chris Gayle or a Sarwan, but the players lower down the rung, or even the first class players.
Secondly, this is not the first instance of these contractual issues having surfaced and another such flare-up could lead to a possible disintegration of the West Indies into different islands and instead of having one team, there could be a possibility of the countries of Jamaica, Guyana and T&T playing as different sides. One hopes that it does not come to that, which most certainly will be one of the more sad days in the cricketing history.
