WICB president issues 'relegation' warning

Tue, Jul 1, '08

 

President of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Julian Hunte has issued a call for the West Indies team start winning matches against higher ranked opponents or face being relegated to a "second division international team."

Hunte, who is now attending a meeting of the Executive Board of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai, said that recent events have made it clear that if the West Indies team does not improve its performances it runs the risk of being put in a special category with the other two lowest ranked teams -- Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

The WICB President pointed out that although the West Indies players are the third best paid in the world (after England and Australia), they are ranked Number 8 and that their performances are inconsistent with the emoluments they receive. 

"We want our team to be Number One both in performance and emoluments.  However, if we do not start winning we run the risk of being relegated and we will not be able to earn the money that we require to regain our place at the pinnacle of world cricket," he declared.

The Board, at its next meeting on July 24 – 25, 2008, will deal with what Hunte considers "a crisis in West Indies cricket" and will ask the Team Management, specifically Coach John Dyson, how they plan to improve the technical skills of the players to make them more competitive and improve the world ranking of the team. 

Additionally, the Board will consider recommendations from the Cricket Committee for a new Selection Panel, the contracts of the present members of the panel having expired on June 30, 2008.

"We need to synchronise all our various efforts and plans to achieve the short-term objective of getting higher up in the rankings.  We have to widen our pool of talent, have a clearly stated and objective selection philosophy, increase the amount of cricket played at the regional level, and improve the standard of the players and teams in our tournaments, and we must do it all very quickly," he said.

"If not, we will not be creating history, as we did in the past.  We will be history.”