West Indies cricket is more important to the people of the region and the international cricket community than the stubborn egos of ODI captain and the players who took the decision to abandon the tour of India, the president and CEO of Wipa and the executive of the WICB. Good sense and even common sense should have prevailed in handling the impasse which eventuated in the sudden abandonment of the tour of India.
The abandonment of the tour is embarrassing not only for West Indies cricket, but to the people of the Caribbean. This fiasco comes right on the heels of another unsavoury international humiliation experienced by the T&T women footballers because of managerial blunders of the TTFA. These situations continue to provide "justification" to the view that developing countries cannot manage their affairs in a highly professional manner.
This off the field embarrassment is on par with on the field shocking defeats suffered at the hands of India in the 1983 Prudential World Cup final and against Kenya in 1996 in a Wills World Cup group game in Pune, India when the West Indies lost by 73 runs. The common feature of these three embarrassing situations is that involved India in some way.
Based on the information that has been made public by the three parties involved in the impasse, it is not clear as to exactly who is most at fault. And although it is important that the mediating task force proposed to look into the impasse need to get to the source of the problem, valuable time has to be spent ensuring that issue is resolved and that West Indies cricket is spared any more humiliation. With the tour of South Africa starting in December and the ICC World Cup in early 2015, the WICB, the players and the task force have to work expeditiously.
At the same time, the WICB has to ensure that it does not buckle under the pressure of the BCCI and any other cricket associations. This is an internal matter and it has to be settled on the terms of the WICB and what is good for West Indies cricket not only in the immediacy of pending tours but for the future. The WICB has to ensure that such a situation is not allowed to recur in the future. Additionally, the situation will not augur well for sponsorship of the game in the region. Digicel must be concerned.
The current situation has its roots embedded in disagreement within Wipa. If there are players who are not comfortable with how the Wipa is functioning as with any organisation they should use established procedures to seek to bring about change within the organisation. At the end of the day the Wipa is the legitimate bargaining body of the players and as such the WICB is bound to negotiate with Wipa. It will be foolhardy of the WICB to start negotiating with other bodies who are not legitimate legal representative of the players. If it is not enshrined in their bargaining policy the WICB has to make it categorically clear that all negotiations will only be conducted with the legitimate players' representatives.
At the moment the current impasse is limited to the senior men team. It has not spread to the West Indies A team who are touring Sri Lanka and the West Indies Women who are currently touring Australia as part of the World Championship Series. It will be wise for the WICB to ensure that these players remained isolated from the impasse.
The BCCI has demonstrated far more urgency in responding to the abandoned tour. They have already indicated a suspension of all bilateral tours in the short-term and that they may consider legal action against the WICB. Interestingly, the BCCI has been very shrewd in laying blame. By blaming the WICB for the abandonment of the tour, they have paved the way for the West Indian players who play in the annual IPL. The West Indian players are among the headliners for each of the respective IPL franchises.
The West Indian players were also very shrewd in selecting where to contest their battle. By choosing India, the country that basically operate/funds world cricket, their leverage would have gained momentum as they were able to get the BCCI to 'align' with them and place blame on the WICB. Had this tour taken place in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, the players leverage would not have been so strong. Their advisors must be complimented!
Dave Cameron and his executive find themselves in unenviable situation. It is hoped that the independent task force will be able soften the obstinate egos of the three parties involved and return West Indies cricket to some sense of sanity. Failure of this happening will only undermine all the much touted expectations of the Pybus Report. It will also further damage the trust of the West Indian public in both the administrators and players of the lovely game which has a long rich history as serving as an important institution in the social, economic and political lives of the Anglophone Caribbean.