Imperative for West Indies Cricket That the Show Goes On

As far as the very future of West Indies cricket is concerned right now, the show simply must go on come what may, as otherwise the immediate consequences are just not worth thinking about for the game in the region.

And that is because this current crisis, resulting from the team’s decision Friday to bring about a premature end to its tour of India following a pay dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board, could not have come at a worse time.

With crowds in the Caribbean already at an all-time low and the financially stricken WICB reportedly in debt to the tune of some $5.6 million, the last thing that those running the game there needed right now was to be hit with a compensation bill of $60 million from the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

But that is actually a possibility after Tuesday’s announcement of BCCI's plans to sue their rival board to reclaim loss of income from sponsorship and TV deals as a direct result of West Indies’ decision to abruptly halt their tour of the subcontinent.

Not only that, though, but perhaps of more long-term significance to the WICB was the revelation the BCCI has also opted to suspend all future bilateral series to the Caribbean, especially given their last tour to the region yielded $22.3 million in revenue for the hosts.

I say more significant because the threat to sue the WICB is just that, a threat, with there being no real hope of the BCCI ever being able to successfully recoup any compensation from those who run the game in the region due to the dire financial straits they currently find themselves in.

In fact, those strong words coming out of India were more to simply let the WICB specifically, and the watching world in general, know exactly what the BCCI thought about this whole issue, while at the same time trying to also placate some of their more irate key stakeholders back home.

All of which makes WICB president Dave Cameron’s decision not to intervene quicker in the pay dispute between the players and the West Indies Players’ Association, which is at the heart of this whole ugly spat, so perplexing given the "serious implications" now facing him and his board.

Under no circumstances whatsoever should Cameron have allowed one-day captain Dwayne Bravo and his teammates to have returned home early from India last week, even if that meant him having to bite the bullet and temporarily suspend the much-discussed agreement signed with the WIPA president and chief executive Wavell Hinds back in September.

That way, the tour could have continued with an uneasy truce in place, and then the three warring parties could all have sat down to thrash out new and mutually acceptable terms before the players set off to South Africa next month.

Instead, however, egos have gotten in the way of some much-needed common sense and now the WICB face a bleak future and the very real threat of bankruptcy unless they can quickly come to a compromise with their irate employees.

And speed most definitely is of the essence if that doomsday scenario is indeed to be avoided, especially given the first Test with South Africa is due to start at Centurion on December 17. The very last thing the WICB can afford right now is to have to cancel another tour.

Meanwhile, sending a second-string squad to take on the Proteas this winter is not a viable option either, as the WICB recently found out when India immediately rebuffed that unappealing proposal as they tried in vain to salvage the tour last weekend.

Looking further ahead at the calendar, both the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this February and March, followed by England’s visit to the Caribbean the month after, are also now under threat unless a new deal can be struck.

And were the England and Wales Cricket Board not to fulfil their two-month tour of the West Indies next year, then that could prove to be the final nail in their coffin given just how lucrative those trips to the region have proved to be to the WICB down the years.

So it is absolutely vital then that the key figures in this spat now stop all the counter-productive posturing and instead get around a table ASAP for face-to-face negotiations in order to find a solution to their financial differences.

Otherwise this once-great cricketing superpower will soon be a thing of the past…

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