Shameful!

Enough is enough! The time has come for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to show some grit and say “Kaput” to the bunch of West Indies players under the canopy of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) who are out to destroy what little is left of West Indies Cricket.{{more}}

The board has been forced to select another team to face Bangladesh in the first test here at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, which was set to start yesterday.

This after the original team under Chris Gayle’s captaincy made themselves unavailable in protest over outstanding payments and the absence of playing contracts.

Once again, head of WIPA Dinanath Ramnarine and his unreasonable disciples have put Cricket and its aspirations to shame.

The actions of the current crop of players fit into the modern trend of bad “boyism”, arrogance, shamelessness and contempt. They are behaving as if they are all that.

How can you as a team who should bring hope to a struggling region with its social and economic problems, instead be bent on changing the definition and West Indies symbolism to one mirroring renegades and bandits.

One day the same players will need the same people on whom they spit scorn and disregard.

Many Caribbean people have lost faith in them as they have deflated and rescinded their own Caribbean Civilisation.

Hence, the West Indies’ Anthem of “Rally Round the West Indies” has been desecrated by the continuous actions of the players.

But what hurts most is that none of the current crop of players, except for Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, are of international status and are in any position to bargin. They are some ordinary, above average club cricketers, who happen to born at the right time, when West Indies Cricket is at a state of malnutrition.

They place no significance on turning out in the maroon cap and take no pride in representing the region.

Sadly, for some people in the region, they do not exist. No one flocks to see them any more when they come to town.

Simply put, the West Indies team of today are not the Caribbean’s favourite sons as they were two decades ago. They are loved only with the love of humanity, not for their actions.

By Caribbean standards, the players are handsomely paid. But do their demands match their performances both on and off the field?

It was reported that part of the fall out was WIPA’s demand for payment of US $1.935 million out of the US$2 million tour guarantee it had received from the England and Wales Cricket Board for the recent tour of England.

It was also reported that the WICB agreed to pay – in some cases – up to five times above the regular fee to the players for the unscheduled tour, and also compensate players who had contracts to play in the Indian Premier League which clashed with the England tour.

West Indies was swept in both series, as England won both Tests and two of the three one-day internationals – the third abandoned because of rain.

The players have documented a library of stand offs. In 1998, they remained at a London hotel in England for several days over a row with the board, before travelling to South Africa.

The result was a five-nil whitewash/ blackwash backlash in the test series.

Several players boycotted the 2005 tour of Sri Lanka. A protracted row between the WICB and the players’ association over sponsorship led to the late withdrawal of ten of the original squad of 13, including Lara, Gayle and Sarwan. Replacement players were called up for the Test series, which West Indies ended up losing 2-0.

Last year, a similar dispute arose in 2008 prior to Australia’s tour of the West Indies. Several senior players considered withdrawing from the first two Tests of the series to remain in the IPL.

The final match versus England in St. Lucia earlier this year was uncertain, also because of a pay/contract row.

Most recently, the players failed to show at the official ticket launch for the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday in St. Lucia.

Earlier this year, the West Indies players had boycotted a cocktail reception in Guyana ahead of the One-day International series against England, and wore black armbands in protest of outstanding issues with the WICB.

While the board and the players squabble over the turf and power, the woes of the West Indies senior team are chronicled in history, as they languish two places from the bottom in the Test rankings and ninth in ODI’s .

So, Enough is Enough, take action now WICB.

It is also shameful to have the “Mound” still at the Sion Hill Playing Field.

l email: kingroache@yahoo.com