By NAN Sports Editor
News Americas, LONDON, England, Thurs. Oct. 30, 2014: Former West Indies skipper and batting legend, Brian Charles Lara, is hopeful the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the players can reach a settlement soon.
Lara’s comments comes on the heels of an impasse over pay between the WICB and the players which resulted in the entire squad striking and pulling out of the scheduled tour of India.
“I don’t place any blame on any one. I don’t know the intricacies of everything that has taken place but I believe that with my past knowledge of West Indies cricket as a player, it’s not a comfortable situation for both the players and the board,” Lara told sportal.co.nz in an interview. “Hopefully they can settle things as quickly as possible and move on because it is only doing damage to the country’s cricket.”
The West Indies team led by Skipper Dwayne Bravo left the India tour with an ODI, a T20I and three Test matches still to go after a falling out between the players and the board over the recent signing of Memorandum of Understanding/Collective Bargaining Agreement (MoM/CBA) by the West Indies Players Association and the WICB.
Lara for his part believes that financial crunches in Windies cricket are nothing new.
“There have always been financial problems going way back to all the eras in West Indian cricket,” said the Trinidadian-born sportsman. “You heard stories from Sir Frank Worrell, right through to the Kerry Packer days till today. Those issues haven’t been handled properly over the years and may be they’re still flustering as we speak.”
The WICB and the WIPA recently met in what the sides say was a “cordial, positive and fruitful” discussion to find a way forward following the premature end of the tour of India. To date, no resolution to the crisis has been forthcoming even as the International Cricket Council gets ready to discuss the matter on Nov. 10th.
