West Indies’ dissent report: WICB and players blamed for India tour fiasco

Task force lays down recommendations to avoid future turmoil

PORT OF SPAIN: West Indies cricket bosses, players and their union representatives were all blamed for October's catastrophic abandonment of the tour of India.

The West Indies team left India four matches into a five-game ODI series after a pay dispute between the players and the board, with the fifth ODI, a subsequent T20 international and three Tests abandoned.

A task force set up by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has spread the blame for the debacle and laid out a raft of recommendations ranging from clear guidelines for players' contracts to appointing a team psychologist for touring parties.

It also insisted on "bonding sessions" between officials and players to help rescue the battered reputation of a team that was once the most feared in the world.

"There is something fundamentally wrong in sending a team to faraway places with only an historical view of their terms of employment and then to radically change those historical terms after they arrive in that distant place," said the report by the task force, which was made public on Sunday.

The task force, which included lawyers Michael Gordon and Richard Cheltenham as well as legendary former fast bowler Wes Hall, said that it was wrong for the players to be left in the dark over their contractual entitlements.

However, the players did not escape censure for abandoning the India tour despite knowing that David Cameron, the president of the WICB, and West Indies Players Association chief Wavell Hinds were due to fly to India to hold talks aimed at ending the crisis.

 

 
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