Not only cricket but West Indian self-worth at stake – Ronald Sanders

By Michelle Nurse Last updated Oct 31, 2014

Undoubtedly, West Indian cricket has now been dealt a mortal blow. The enormous financial consequences of the team’s abrupt termination of their tour of India are far reaching. The WICB is in no position to repay the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) the estimated US$65 million in revenue losses. If the BBCI presses its claim with a law suit, the WICB will not only be unable to raise credit, it will also have no money for the development of cricket including paying the many players now on contract.

The grave financial effects are bad enough, but even worse is the damage done to West Indian cricket. There are obvious protracted and troubling differences between the West Indian cricketers and the WICB. But, whatever those differences are, the manner of resolving them should not have been a public walk out of a tour of India before the television cameras of the cricketing world. That single act shamed the people of the West Indies and injured the reputation of West Indian cricket. The action was simply not the West Indian way and washed dirty linen in public in a disgraceful manner. – Sir Ronald Sanders