Planet Cricket
There are still plenty of issues for West Indies to resolve
The tentative signs of a Caribbean cricket revival have been one of the most heartening cricket stories of 2017. Sure, this year’s results have hardly been spectacular. But, compared to what has gone before, the epic victory at Headingley, and an impressive Test series win away to newly strengthened Zimbabwe have created the tangible sense of progress.
This has been married to spectacular individual performances from rising stars – Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite at Headingley and thereafter; Evin Lewis’ 175 in the ODI at the Oval; plus consistent promise from the young pace attack.
And, perhaps most heartening of all, since Johnny Grave was appointed as chief executive in the New Year, there has been a thaw in the destructive relationship between the West Indies players and the board.
Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels returned in the ODI series against England, while Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine returned for the T20I; Narine could soon return to the ODI team too. Even Darren Bravo, who has a Test average of 40.00 and is still only 28, could return to the Test team in the coming months. After years of ceaseless gloom, interspersed only with their two glorious World Twenty20 victories, optimism is back in West Indies cricket.
Against this backdrop came Darren Sammy’s interview with ESPNCricinfo this week: a salutary reminder that, for all the progress in the Caribbean in recent months, huge amounts of work remain undone.
In July, Cricket West Indies finally embraced reality by offering a temporary amnesty in their ODI selection policy, ending the selfdestructive policy of only selecting players who featured in the domestic 50-overs tournament. Overseas T20 leagues, most notably the Big Bash, clash with the 50-over tournament – so players preferred to play there instead, where they could earn more cash.
Sammy explained that, in the long-run, the West Indies can only be assured of fielding their best team by paying their players more, and being more flexible. There are no easy answers, given that T20 leagues now take up ten months of the year. But it is lunacy for the Caribbean Premier League to clash with a West Indies Test series; last year, it clashed with the visit of India, and this year it clashed with the tour to England. Like New Zealand, all clashes with the IPL must be avoided in the future – something Cricket West Indies are determined to ensure.
And what of the cash itself? Well, here’s the problem. The West Indies is a small region, with only six million people. Travelling between the 16 different islands, territories and countries that make up the side costs a huge amount.
So Cricket West Indies really doesn’t have great swathes of cash to divide up among the players. Today, the West Indies earn around £12m a year for their domestic TV rights. England’s new broadcasting deal is worth almost 20 times as much: £220m a year.
This all emphasises the selfishness of England and especially India in not agreeing to a more equitable division of ICC funds between different Test nations. Excluding merit-based performances, England get £1 million a year more from the ICC than the West Indies, and India get £35 million more. The upshot is that the West Indies have less cash to pay their best players, encouraging them to pursue a career in T20 leagues above all else, and weakening the national side on the pitch.
Still, it’s not only about the cash. It’s also about the deleterious relationship between the players and board. Grave has gone some way towards rebuilding trust but, so fraught has the relationship been for many years that the process remains far from complete and will take time to heal itself.
As captain, Sammy said: “I had to be going to work every day swimming with sharks.” And the biggest single reason for his feelings – Dave Cameron, the president of Cricket West Indies – remains. “We have a president who is very egotistical,” Sammy said. “I’ve already said before he thinks he’s the face of West Indies cricket.”
The point is that, while the West Indies have stabilised this year, there remain multifarious unresolved issues. It seems most unlikely that either Dwayne Bravo or Sammy will ever play for the West Indies again. The reintegration of players is only just beginning. And the new English T20 league will create another huge attraction for the West Indies players’ time, imperilling the national side’s ability to field their strongest possible side. It is one thing preventing scheduling clashes with the IPL; quite another preventing them with leagues in Australia, England and Bangladesh, who can also afford to play overseas stars huge amounts, too.
The West Indies’ rebuilding work at home needs to continue apace. But to succeed, it needs help from the largest full members to ensure the international fixture calendar – and, just as pertinently, the way the ICC’s cash is divided up – allows the West Indies to thrive.