Everybody is pointing fingers and apportioning blame, but what I find particularly disturbing about the whole situation is the lack of leadership displayed by the players.
Not one of the players displayed the type of leadership that is needed to take West Indies forward. Not one of them could show the initiative to stand up and say “hold on, fellows, let’s take a more serious look at the situation”.
They all followed blindly down the same road to disaster when they cancelled the tour. It is with this in mind that I find the suggestions by Dr Rudi Webster particularly appealing. If there are no leaders among us, we must import leaders.
Let the ICC [International Cricket Council] or some professional body take over in the short term. The type of management that was highlighted in Sir David Simmons’ comments [about the notification of his inclusion on the task force] is not the type of management that would instill confidence in West Indies cricket. It is a wishy-washy way of doing things.
The time for opportuning blame is past. We must look forward to the pending legal action that the Indians are threatening to take.
We can address that by first accepting the responsibility for our own action.
We can then continue by pointing out to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that the presence of Sri Lanka in India to take over from the West Indies is in fact a better financial proposition for them than was the West Indies team that is now considered to be a second-rate team in world cricket.
This would in some way reduce the heavy burden threat of US$47 million. The Sri Lankans are World T20 champions and would be carrying more crowd appeal than the West Indies team that is no longer competitive on the cricket field.
They may well make more money from the Sri Lankan part of the tour that they would’ve if the West Indies had continued the tour.
This would in fact offset some of the US$47 million which everyone knows the West Indies are incapable of finding.
The second area of contention is the cancellation of the future tours to the West Indies.
While we understand the reason for the BCCI to cancel future tours, the cancellation of any tour is non-productive.
We would all be better served if the Indians had rearranged the financial arrangement for future tours. For instance, no longer would they offer 20 per cent for rights, we would now have to accept ten per cent that would go a long way in reducing the heavy financial burden that we might face from legal action by the BCCI.
Any financial arrangement that we previously decided on would be drastically reduced to compensate the Indians for the cancellation of the tour. These suggestions are for the way forward.
• Glenville “Rocky” Daniel is a former photo-journalist with the NATION Newspaper. He now resides in Boston but still avidly follows the fortunes of the West Indies cricket team.
