West Indies Cricketers Deserve More Respect
Windies Players Have Won Another Round of Pay Disputes
Apr 11, 2009
West Indies cricket has taken a tentative step forward after the recent 1-0 Test series victory over England but seemed to have taken two steps backwards in that old problem of team morale. Everybody acknowledges that world cricket would benefit from a resurgent West Indies side. They are not known as the Calypso Kings for nothing. At their best, they bring a style and excitement that no other side does.
Andrew Flintoff Cut Into a Demoralised Side
Even though they succumbed to Andrew Flintoff’s superb bowling in the final one-day international to lose the series 3-2, overall the West Indies got the psychological edge over the old enemy.
Now hostilities resume in England next month and if the West Indies players can put their perennial issues over money aside, they could score a famous victory there.
New Coach Dyson Has Improved Results
Under new coach John Dyson West Indies have raised their game, particularly the batsmen.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is officially the world’s best batsman, captain Chris Gayle is more consistent and the mercurial Ramnaresh Sarwan does not give his wicket away so cheaply anymore.
But the level of bowling is still not anything like it was in the glory days of the Seventies and Eighties. Fidel Edwards is probably the pick of the quickies and Jerome Taylor has found line and length better, but they are not the fearsome bowlers of the Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Colin Croft era.
West Indies Still Arguing Over Pay
The fact that the players are still bickering with the West Indies Cricket Board over payments and contracts eclipses the deficiencies in the side, which, of course, it shouldn’t.
Consensus is that is the reason why they lost the last one-dayer by 26 runs. Apart from Flintoff’s brilliance which included a hat-trick, Gayle’s side had been distracted and ill prepared in the last couple of days before the crucial decider.
Ramnarine Had to Quit the Board
Historically, this has happened many times before. West Indies sides in the past have taken their pay disputes down to the wire and generally come off worst because of it on the field.
They’ve lost vital matches and attracted media and public hostility too. But ultimately, it’s not the players’ fault, but the board, whose intransigence and lack of understanding of players’ needs has always been either bizarre or downright outrageous.
Things looked to be changing for the better when West Indian Players’ Association President Dinanath Ramnarine became an executive member of the West Indies board.
But Ramnarine resigned from the board last month citing a conflict of interests as his reason. He felt he could not adequately represent the players if he was also part of the board’s decision-making process.
West Indies Players Feel Neglected
The result was that retainer contracts, general payments and players’ fees were resolved, but there is still a whiff of impending acrimony hanging in the air. In any other part of the world, cricket heroes are treated like demi-gods, but when it comes to the West Indies board, their players are anything but.
West Indies Squad to Tour England
The lineup for the West Indies team includes Chris Gayle, Denesh Ramdin, Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel Edwards, Brendan Nash, Nelon Pascal, Dale Richards, Andrew Richardson, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
