The hordes of problems in recent decades aside, the many differences were generally papered over and the facade of a unified front maintained in West Indies cricket. But on Friday when the Calypso boys struck the rather unmusical note of abandoning their India tour midway following a pay dispute with their cricket board, Caribbean cricket lay in tatters. The West Indies cricket collective isn't dead yet; but its spirit lies buried. Friday will always be a dark day in its history.
The fall of West Indies cricket and the rise of pay disputes have almost happened in synchronicity. During its glory days in the 1980s, West Indies primarily played for pride as best illustrated in the documentary, Fires of Babylon. But with the increasing commercialisation of the game, that viewpoint changed. But while countries like India developed the means and methods to create a money-making machine out of the sport which in turn helped the BCCI feed the hunger for money-share among cricketers, WICB faltered in a similar endeavour.
That's primarily because the popularity of cricket in the region declined over the years; football and basketball taking away not only the spectators but also promising talents. It became a vicious cycle. With no crowds, there was little sponsorship money. Gate receipts too dwindled. With frequency and percentage of on-field losses growing alarmingly, the crowds preferred to be elsewhere. Tests, once the go-to-place for the wild and the expressive, were now played to empty stands. Even ODIs didn't hold much charm. T20 was the only cash cow now. That too received a jolt when Allen Stanford, one of its top promoters in those parts, was arrested for fraud. He was sentenced to 110 years in jail in 2012!
The disjunct between the board and the players had started much earlier though. An article published in the Guardian back in 2005, recalled: "In 1998, just before the start of a South African Test tour, in the context of an extended pay dispute, the WICB sacked the then captain Brian Lara and vice captain Carl Hooper, beginning two tense, draining days of brinkmanship eventually won by the players. Lara and Hooper were reinstated but the team went on to lose the series 5-0." Contract payment and sponsorship related issues led to major stand-offs in 2004 and 2005 as well.
The sparring between the WICB and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has often included the sponsors too. And sometimes, unkind cuts too have been made. The Guardian story also talks about a leaked memo by a sponsor which "contained comments (called unfair by WIPA and contradicted by the team manager's report to the WICB) such as, if the players had as many runs as they had women's telephone numbers, they might have won the series."
In recent years, face-offs between WICB and WIPA became worryingly frequent. Ever since T20 leagues have sprouted over the world, the confrontations have become more intransigent. With the more talented players getting an opportunity to ply their trade globally, they have become less dependent on the Board. The much-written about dispute between T20 superstar Chris Gayle and WICB dragged on for 15 months from April 2011 to June 2012.
But the abandoning of a tour midway marks a new low. For fans of Calypso cricket world over, it is a distressing turn of events. There was a romance to West Indies cricket. Where's all the song and dance gone?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=West Indies Players Association,West Indies cricket,Carl Hooper,Brian Lara,BCCI
Stay updated on the go with The Times of India's mobile apps. Click here to download it for your device.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Dark day for West Indies cricket
Dengan url
http://bijikacang.blogspot.com/2014/10/dark-day-for-west-indies-cricket_20.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Dark day for West Indies cricket
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Dark day for West Indies cricket
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar