West Indies cricket faces a potentially crippling financial crisis after a peeved India suspended future visits to the Caribbean following the abandonment last week of the tour to India.
The West Indies cut short their tour last Friday because of an internal pay dispute, even though the fifth one-day international, a Twenty20 match and three Tests still remained to be played.
India retaliated on Tuesday by cancelling a tour scheduled for February and March 2016 to play three Tests, five one-dayers and a Twenty20 international.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), one of the richest bodies in world cricket, also said it would “initiate legal proceedings” against the West Indies but gave no details.
“All bilateral tours between BCCI and the WICB (West Indies Cricket Board) stand suspended,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a statement on Tuesday.
India’s away tours usually generate huge sponsorship money for the host nation due to the country’s large cricket-viewing population.
“The WICB is caught between the devil and the deep sea,” popular TV commentator Harsha Bhogle told AFP.
“If India don’t tour, they (WICB) won’t get the revenue needed to implement the agreement over which they had the dispute.”
Veteran Caribbean cricket journalist Tony Cozier, writing on the Cricinfo website last week, warned that it would be disastrous for the Islands if India cancelled future tours.
“With its purchase of broadcast rights, ground perimeter advertising and sponsorship by its big corporations, India in the Caribbean brings more revenue to the WICB than any other tour,” Cozier wrote.
Tuesday’s statement comes after the BCCI’s working committee held an emergency meeting in Hyderabad.
West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo had said before the start of the tour on October 8 that the players had not accepted the payment agreement signed on their behalf by the West Indies Players Association.
But the tourists took to the field for three one-dayers in Kochi, New Delhi and Dharamsala, while one match in Visakhapatnam was cancelled due to a severe storm on India’s east coast.
The West Indies board blamed the players, saying it had warned the BCCI the tour was “under a cloud of uncertainty from the inception” as a result of “postulations” by the players.
The BCCI has already finalised a five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka to take place in India between November 1 and 15 to replace the cancelled West Indian tour.
Patel said the BCCI “appreciated the gesture” of their neighbour to agree to a hastily-arranged series, which was reciprocated Tuesday by India who announced a tour of Sri Lanka in July-August next year.
The BCCI statement did not mention the status of the West Indies players, including Bravo, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, signed up for the cash-rich Indian Premier League.
Tom
Guest
Hopefully the West Indies can tour Australia more often in the future. Such an enjoyable team to watch and the crowd atmosphere at WI games are always the best! Lets hope this madness ends soon and the BCCI sees some sense before they do too much damage.
Vibhor
Roar Rookie
The BCCI has cut bilateral ties with WICB now, really feel bad for them. They are an exciting team to watch with some really talented cricketers.
Simon Smale
Roar Guru
Ye I agree Sideline Comm. It's never seems appropriate to financially cripple someone when all their problems stem from a lack of capital in the first place... It's tough, because you can't have teams, lead by player revolts, abandoning series in the middle of a tour. There has to be reprocussions. The rich taking money from the poor definitely isnt the best way to do it though...
Sideline Comm.
Guest
Without knowing the legal ins and outs of this situation, I feel like India are doing the wrong thing by cancelling tours and pursuing legal action. Like the article says, to financially punish the Windies when their issues essentially stem from finances, or lack there of, I don't see how India are helping. They are going the right way to kill the Windies, I hear a 'Big Thee' conspiracy brewing. India, far from suing them and taking away revenue, could perhaps offer to loan them some money to pay their players in exchange for certain promises for the future. At the very least they could let them deal with it alone.