Bravo weighs in on WIPA/WICB dispute

Mon, Mar 30, '09

by MICHELLE MCDONALD IN BARBADOS

"Having Bravo back has brought a lot of energy....you have to run and try and catch him when he gets a wicket. It’s just good to have him back."

That was West Indies captain Chris Gayle talking candidly about what Dwayne Bravo’s return to the team has meant. Coach John Dyson echoed similar sentiments, calling him "an entertaining and exciting cricketer." Sidelined when he opted to have surgery performed on an injured left ankle, Bravo expected his lay-off to be maximum six months. However, it has been eight long months since fans saw the 25 year old bowling successfully at the death, or running like a flying jumbo jet after taking a wicket.

 

Dwayne Bravo came back with a bang, even before technically coming back. Spectators witnessed his phenomenal fielding skills when he ran out Owais Shah, and then took the catch which dismissed danger man Kevin Pietersen in the fifth Test against England in his native Trinidad. He was subbing for a team mate.

The day before contributing with the bat in a losing cause in the fourth ODI, Dwayne Bravo sat down with CaribbeanCricket.com at the team’s hotel to talk about his return to international cricket, as well as the current dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA). His statements on the latter subject should put a lot of speculation to rest.

MM: How has your return to international cricket been personally for you?

DB: It’s been a good one. I never really expected it to be so successful so soon in terms of competing. Having said that, I really enjoyed getting back into international cricket and I enjoy playing the game. The team has been playing well. Even though while I was not there, while I looked on it on TV, I saw myself getting back in the frame of things, getting back in the team and trying to continue where I left off.

How is the ankle feeling?

It’s feeling good. The pain I used to get before is not there anymore, but there is still soreness and stiffness after every game, so I have just got to monitor it and treat it. We have a very good physio in CJ Clarke and I had a very good medical staff back home also in Trinidad who looked after me very well and gave me the confidence that I could get back out there playing again.

Was it in a particular game that you picked up the injury?

The injury first started back in 2005. West Indies had played Pakistan in a double header in St Lucia and on the last day, the Sunday, after the game, we had a fitness test where I was doing shuttles and twisted my ankle and since then it keep giving me problems. I never got the time to rest it properly; I never got the time to actually look after it but that is when it first started.

Knowing how much you love to play cricket, how difficult was the decision to go and do the surgery?

It was a big decision I had to make. I had to think about it over and over. It was hinted to me that I needed to get surgery done. I tried to prevent it by playing with pain killers and injections and then it reached a point where I couldn’t bear the pain anymore when I realized I needed to get the surgery done. It was also a choice I had to make whether I played the Stanford Twenty20 game and do my surgery after, or do the surgery, miss the Twenty20 and get ready for the England series. When I put everything together, my health is more important than a one-off Twenty20 game and my aim was to try and get back for the England series. That was the most important thing for me.

And I guess you had an idea of how long the lay-off would have been.

Well yeah...but to be honest, I never expected it to be this long. I thought it would have been maybe five to six months but it actually took me eight months, but it’s alright.

When people have an injury sometimes they feel that it might not ever be the same, that the ankle might give up on you again. Do you ever have those fears?

Yes. It is there in the back of my mind but as I said, I have a very good medical team working with me and I trust their decision and their opinion. I know once I cross the field, I forget about everything and just try to take it out of my mind so it will not affect my performance and the way how I move on the field, so that is one of the reasons why I am able to go out there and play the way I play.

And of course, you made an immediate impact, even before officially joining the team when you came on as a substitute fielder and caught Kevin Pietersen. How much were you itching to get back out there?

The feeling was always there. Watching it on tv, watching the guys play and the way how they’ve been playing and the team has been doing well, it was in me that I need to get back out there and be a part of that successful team. Getting the opportunity to go out there and field in the Test match, that was the first step of me getting back into international cricket. I played a couple club games for Queen’s Park Cricket Club and I felt good and I was just happy to get out there, be around the team again. I had a run out, which was good, and also as you said, caught KP. So it was good, being in the dressing room with the guys again.

When I spoke with you first in 2004 before you had made the West Indies team, I had asked you what positive qualities you think you would bring to the team. You said "my all around abilities as a batsman who can bat and bowl as good as you think I can bat..." There have been issues with how well you bat and how much you contribute with the bat. We remember Brian Lara saying you have to be reminded you are a batting all rounder, not a bowling all rounder. How much does that play on you when you go out to bat?

Yeah....especially in the shorter version of the game. The shorter version of the game is more difficult for me to perform consistently with the bat because of the position that I am batting in. I bat at number 6, sometimes I go lower; it depends on the way the game has been going. Ninety percent of the time whenever I go into bat, it’s like 10 – 12 overs remaining in the innings. It is those times you really have to step it up and try to score and tick the scoreboard over. Not making any excuses or anything like that but it does not suit my style of play but I think the way how the team is built I have no choice but to bat down the order.

Whenever I score runs for the West Indies team like my One Day hundred, is when I bat up the order at number 3. I got two half centuries when I batted at number 4 against India. If I get the opportunity to bat up the order, there would be a difference in being more consistent where the bat is concerned, but for now, I have to play as I see it. I am a team player as we all know, and I will try, no matter what the situation is, try to do things out of my reach to try and see if I could put the team in a position of strength.

What about your batting technique would you most like to improve on?

There is a lot I could improve on. I believe I just have to control my shot selection and my ego. I think that gets the better of me most times, so it is more mentally than anything else.

I had also asked you back in 2004 – which is five years ago – in five years time where you saw yourself. You said "as a sure player on the team and trying to play a big role on the team to help them to get back on top." How much do you think you have contributed to that and achieved that goal?

I have achieved in terms of being a sure player on the team. That is one. I have been in the team for almost five years. I have been with the team when we were losing, when we were down. Now I am in the team where we are trying to turn the corner now and playing better consistently in both forms of the game. Yes, I have a big part to play, not only performance wise but just my whole attitude and my appearance around the team actually lifts the team and lifts the guys, so I think that’s what I have contributed as well.

How much might the ongoing dispute between WIPA and WICB prevent the team’s progress from getting back to the top?

Well, it is not a nice situation where the Board and the Players Association always in a bit of a conflict where contracts are concerned and the players getting involved. We are happy to have Dinanath Ramnarine as our representative. He is someone who relates all the messages back to us. He does not do anything without informing us. We actually give him the orders what we think he should do, so he actually works for us and he has been doing a great job for us. We respect his decision and his opinion and we are very happy to have him on our side because I think if we didn’t have Dinanath Ramnarine, I don’t think the players would have been in the position they are in today.

Some people think that WIPA is only looking out for the benefit of you, the international players, and not for the mass who play First Class cricket. How do you respond to that?

No, no. That don’t have any truth in it at all! Whenever we meet as a team, and whenever Ramnarine comes and talks with us, our main issue is about the First Class players. He keeps stressing on the First Class players, not too much on us, because we have it better off than the First Class players. Ramnarine is the only one who got First Class fees raised after so many years. A First Class player maybe represent his country for 10, 15 years and to play a KFC cup game you get US$120 and a four-day game you get US$250 or something like that. I think in this day and age, it just doesn’t make any sense.

We the West Indies players, the Test players, take it upon ourselves to try and make sure that the First Class players get a better salary. Ramnarine is very very clear about it. He is very supportive of the First Class players. He even tries to go even more out for the First Class players to make sure they get a better income.

There is also the thinking that the players are not fully aware of all the issues, especially now in this dispute. Agree?

No, disagree. Every information, Ramnarine let us know everything that is taking place so we are fully aware of everything that is going on in the meetings. We are fully aware of what the Board owes us. We know everything, we are never short of information. As I said before, whenever those issues come up, the first person Ramnarine contacts is Chris; Chris calls a meeting and let the players know what is going on and we the players come up as a team, and make a decision on what we would like Ramnarine to go forward with.

Injury payment is one of those issues. You were off injured for eight months. How did that impact on you?

I feel a bit hurt to know that the way how I play and represent the West Indies – but I must say they looked after me in terms of putting things in place for my surgery to be done. But having said that, I have been eight months out of cricket and within that time, I haven’t received anything from WICB. Maybe if they had the retainer in place or whatever, things might have been different. But it is just upsetting. It is not only me. A lot of players also go through the same thing. But it is very hard and I think it is something that the Board needs to look at.

So you have had to live off your savings for the last eight months.

Well yes. The little bit that I’ve made representing the West Indies for the last four years, I have to live off it, yes.

IPL....are you going?

Will be going yes, not sure how long I will be going for. Still haven’t got the all clear from the WICB as yet. It is something our representative is working on with the Board, so not sure.

Another perception people have is that you are all greedy and that all of this dispute is coming from sheer greed. Don’t you think it would make a statement if all the players who are contracted to the IPL decide not to go?

Well, greedy in terms of what?

Wanting more money. Wanting more, why you always want more? Why you can’t just play the game for the love of the game?

Why everybody don’t work for the love of it and don’t want to get a salary?

Why you all so concerned about money?

So why a bank manager go to work every day? Why a teacher goes to work everyday? Why she don’t just go and teach and don’t study about money? Is not only us complain about money. You see teachers protest for salaries; you see people protest because of shortage of salary. I don’t know. I don’t know, but we have to understand and accept that the way how life is going, and the way how cricket is going now, it is more a business. It is still a sport but there is a lot of business, there is a lot of money floating around. Players see opportunity where they could make other income. I don’t see any problem with it.

All the IPL players, all the West Indies players looked at our schedule. There was a Bangladesh tour supposed to be on during the IPL time, then the Bangladesh tour get called off. We asked our representative what we have during the IPL time, he said we have nothing on so we all signed our contracts with our IPL team knowing that we have six weeks with the franchise, with the team. Then the England tour came up, where the WICB went on and signed that tour without letting WIPA know anything about the tour. We find ourselves in a position now where we already signed our contracts without a Retainer Contract, so none of us was on a Retainer Contract at that time. We signed our contract to go and represent our IPL team, now we are in a position where we have to choose whether to go and play IPL for the first six weeks or go to England.

It is a tricky situation. As you rightly say, if we choose to go and play IPL, they will say why the players, they want their money. We will be going to play in England so I don’t know where it came about from, but it is something we need to look at in the near future and see how the Board do things. They have to understand that the Sri Lanka players pull out [of the England tour] because their Board are aware that the key players have IPL contracts and therefore they allow the players to get income another way, but I don’t see our Board.....I don’t think they really understand.

Some of the people who appear to be the fiercest critics are ex-players. How does that make you feel?

I respect all the past players. I have a very good relationship with them. I look up to all of them even today. I just listen to their opinion and that is just their way of seeing things. We are going to see how the contract goes and hopefully if we get to play a part in the IPL and hopefully go over to England.

Somebody said that when you finish your career, you are going to be known as the greatest all-rounder that ever played, based on how you are going so far.

I don’t think so. I don’t think so. My aim is to be one of the best all-rounders that play the game, one of the best, not the greatest. I don’t think any all-rounder could ever past Sir Garry Sobers. I think he is the trendsetter for all-rounders and I think what he has done for cricket is tremendous.

There are a lot of good players out there – Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, they are all great players. My role is to try and see how close I can get to those players. They all achieved great things for their country and for themselves personally, so that is my aim, to see how best Dwayne Bravo can possibly be at the end of his career. I want to look back and know that I gave it my all and I have stats to show that I was one of the best.