Vin­ode Mam­chan

The West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) is yet to ho­n­our the World Twen­ty20 (T2) win­ning team.

T&T Guardian un­der­stands that since win­ning the world ti­tle the re­gion­al play­ers have got­ten on­ly a con­grat­u­la­to­ry mes­sage from the WICB and noth­ing else. The West In­dies crick­et team sur­prised all by win­ning the ti­tle against hosts Sri Lan­ka, last year.

It is un­der­stood that none of the play­ers were giv­en any­thing and al­though some were met by some of the of­fi­cials, there was no re­ward for win­ning the ti­tle. The re­gion­al team has been with­out a world ti­tle since Bri­an Lara led them to the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) Cham­pi­ons Tro­phy ti­tle in Eng­land in 2004.

Some of the play­ers have been ask­ing why have they not been recog­nised but they have not got­ten any an­swers from the re­gion­al body. At­tempts to con­tact the pres­i­dent of the WICB, Dr Julien Hunte yes­ter­day proved un­suc­cess­ful.

For the play­ers it is not on­ly about mon­e­tary re­wards but at least the recog­ni­tion for win­ning a world ti­tle. Skip­per Dar­ren Sam­my was pa­rad­ed in St Lu­cia on re­turn­ing home but none of the oth­ers play­ers were giv­en any recog­ni­tion, even by their home boards.

The West In­dies women crick­eters were how­ev­er luck­i­er, as they were giv­en gifts and oth­er re­wards when they ar­rived home about two weeks ago from Sri Lan­ka. They had ear­li­er fin­ished as run­ners-up in the Women's 50 overs World Cup in In­dia. They lost out to Aus­tralia in the fi­nal of the tour­na­ment in New Del­hi, In­dia.

The men crick­eters at this point al­though very hap­py that the women have been recog­nised is still wait­ing on word from the re­gion­al body, as to whether they would be ho­n­oured or whether the medal they re­ceived from the ICC for win­ning the fi­nals, will be enough for their ef­forts.

A source close to the sit­u­a­tion says that with WICB elec­tions in the air right now, it is ei­ther they get their recog­ni­tion now or they may nev­er get it.

"It is sad. These guys played their hearts out to bring glo­ry to the peo­ple of the Caribbean af­ter so long and at least we can show our ap­pre­ci­a­tion to them. They won a world ti­tle and it was like, just an­oth­er se­ries for the WICB."

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