JAMAICA: West Indian Cricket Board (WICB) has approached other teams after Pakistan declined to play tri-series in Zimbabwe comprising West Indies, Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Reported by thenewstribe

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Pakistan nah dumb (unlike Commie's WICB).

They know that Pakistan currently sit in that all important 8th spot, above the WI. Playing the WI at this time would just give them the opportunity to leapfrog PAK into a large chunk of ICC Champions Trophy cash.

This has really become silly now. When cricket boards are plucking out ODI series just to get into the Champions Trophy, the whole thing's become a farce.

They should either scrap the tourney or open it up to everyone, if teams are going to be doing these wacky things.

In reply to Tryangle

Pakistan, West Indies and Zimbabwe tri-series likely to be played in T20 format

It serve the WICB right, for not meeting with the players.
This is on Dave and Hinds, shoulders.

In reply to Real-cricket

Pak decision nuh selfish at all

In reply to Real-cricket

Bullshit, each Board will do what is in their best interest.

Pakistan has made a strategic decision just like what Hillarie, cameron and WI players have done in the past. WI team is the unfortunate collatarel damage but why would anyone care...

Best thing is that this will give WI to continue to believe that they would have been in Champions trophy id the series had gone ahead... Good for WI

Just wait... as long as this is allowed to continue, we'll have a repeat when the next World Cup comes around and the teams at the 8/9 spots scramble around to create series or cancel series for rankings points to automatically qualify.

In reply to Emir

Yeah but it is still "selfish". Being selfish is in their best interest!

It is in my opinion demeaning & dehumanizing that Our once Great Team
has regressed to the point where it now has to indulge in Gimmicks to get
into the ICC Tournament .

I have no doubt that if Sir Frank Worrell was alive , he would
be upset by the Regression of Cricket
in the Region .

This is what happens when you don't pick your best team for tours. In their endeavors to punish players that they think are out of order, AKA Victimize. Where would the WI be in terms of points if they were not swept in SAN and had a better performance at the world cup?

In reply to emanuel

People don't want to hear the truth...

Good to rebuild away from the spotlight

In reply to emanuel

'Correck is right'!

In reply to emanuel

How did we get there.

Do you know how many ODIS we have won in SA since they came back into the sport?

The wonderful thing is that people project hope from people who have routinely gotten us to exactly where we are right now.

In reply to Commie

Where's there? #9? Behind freaking Bangladesh? Please tell us.



Why the focus on just one side, limited to away at that? SA away is about 5% of the WI schedule.

Still to answer your question, I remember us winning one under Lara in a 1-5 thrashing.

then we won won recently, when SA played their B team, in a 1-4 thrashing (might have been 1-3).

Cant remember how we did under Gayle in ODIS in SA, but he did lead us to one Test win.

In reply to Chrissy
Chrissy we have not won a thing with or without them except T20.
You know a company changes staff that flat lines continually knowing that the newbies could do no worse but odds are better that out of them emerges 1,2,3 exceptional performers.

In reply to emanuel

Maybe you haven't been watching west indies cricket, but for every tour west indies made to SA since I can remember from my youth days which was 1999, I don't think they have won more than 1 ODI game in any series, and they won exactly 1 without the stars. different team, same story!

In reply to jen

It still doesn't justify, the art of not fielding the strongest team. Especially if you are thinking big picture. They knew the champion's league were in the horizon, they also should of known the entry requirements. If you want to punish players, you take a percentage of their salary. When you drop players, you not only punish the said player, but their team mates, and the fans. You play the game to win. Now (Jen) looking back knowing what you know now, would you say dropping your senior players were the best choice. Remember not being able to make the Champions League would be a financial blow.
I await your response.

Kind Regards

In reply to emanuel

Seems as if people are been paid to mash up Windies cricket. De big boys dem

This whole fiasco is comedy central....

Selection policies over the past 5 -6 years have compromised WI team based on an elusive Futuristic view that is gonna come 10 years down the line. WI were okay losing to Bang or any team since that did never make an impact.

WI has been always been well ahead of Bangladesh and Zimbabwe for a long time. I am trying to see how our odi ranking was during the 2000's but am not able to. A look into that should throw some light into how we were stacked against other teams

In reply to mikesiva

It's been like this now for a good 6-7 years…

Remember these:

1. Sir Viv Stadium Sand Fiasco
2. Playing Wisden trophy at Short Notice because Lanka Pulled out
3. Losing 0-2 to Bangladesh at Home
4. Pulling out of India Tour

In reply to thefacts

Some trying to say WI were always been bad, but I remember WI competing even against real good teams in 2000's. Now we are not able to compete with depleted teams

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

I see it now.

Hindia rolling over and playing dead thereby giving the WI the series win and as a result Pakistan and WI switching places in the ODI standing.

Politics do make strange bedfellows.

In reply to Drapsey

Heh. But favours aside, Pakistan got a far bigger TV audience than Windies. No contest.

In reply to Tryangle

Yuh talking economics, I talking politics.

In reply to Kurt

The effort it takes to go from where WI were to where they are now, was pretty consistent. And pretty horrible.

We have been through every cycle of picking who Joey Carew liked, to who the captain at the time liked, to who was going to give least problems to the WICB.

We have been through every permutation.

Therefore this mythical best team doesnt exist. Nearly every combination of these players have pretty much been tried. I watched King, Mclean, Rose and Dillon stink up the joint so badly that Ambrose and Walsh had to bowl more, not less, in their older age.

My only complaint is that the WI has never done a proper gut and rebuild, instead choosing to short circuit the process everytime after some incident that somehow has some group, militating for some favorite player or players.

These days it is T20 and CPL somehow creating this illusion that x or y player has some intl pedigree. The best in these tourneys have T20 pedigree. 1 in 20 MIGHT come through for ODIS.

Apart from the standard of the pitches, the other prime issue is that there are a backlog of younger players who keep on waiting for regional teams to abandon journeymen fc players so they can get a proper chance. The WICB really should bring back a neutral team into the PCL comprising of all the players who get lost because their regional teams dont pick them and the U19 graduates who struggle to get a game. Then we can widen the pool of playing talent and players available to selection.

Its interesting watching Canada U19 who played unbeaten through the intl qualifiers and qualified for the Youth WC next year being battered by Windwards and Jamaica so far. That more than suggests our cricket is higher standard than the ICC upcomers, but we do not graduate them seamlessly.

Its time to move on with our cricket. There is T20 entertainment and then there is the business of rebuilding cricket properly so that WI can actually climb up the rankings.

In reply to jen
WI have always played the least games in the,ODI format. The law of averages show that the more games you play the more games will be in your win column - not series wins- games. The India pull out lost WI some games and Bang packed theirs with what they are best at ODIs.
The rankings dont go by series wins but points accumulated on games won, kinda like Tennis rankings (Wosniaki #1 vs Serena #6). We know that was a lie

In hindsight the ICC may have to rethink this deadline issue and supplant it with a ranking based on X number of games played within a timeframe. Any games played before or after will no longer count. Teams then cant pick or choose or pad points.

In reply to Drapsey
Pakistan economically? Really? That is some vibrant spending economy! We do no our populace is smaller but a large population doesnt necessarily make a greater economy. When targeting TV audiences the sponsors look at spending power/ability in both the single country and the shared market of the collective. Pak is luckily a part of the collective and benefits as such on its own well...? If their "cricket" economic status was so great a way would have been found to overcome the "terror" hardships, but it is not that significant in ICC realm of things.
The Airline, cruise ship, travel, auto, technology, commodities industry can exploit the WI community profitably
compared to Pakistans.

In reply to Commie The use of T20 wisely sure can benefit the future players. I would go further in expanding the pool. I would add BVI and Bahamas/Bermuda and invite them to become members - the wider the pool the better. Heck England raids Ireland and SA for players. People thonk the West Indies is only "our" islands and exclude Haiti, Martinique etc as also West Indies as Columbus named the region in his great wisdom

In reply to Scar

Thats a very good idea tbh. Agreed.