Message Board Archives

Pat Cummins of Australia is doing it. Sam Billings of England is doing it.

Of course both of them are way better paid by their national boards than any WI player... not to mention "the prestige of the Ashes".

In reply to Tryangle

Unless our top players start doing the same, our cricket will not improve.

If our cricket improves, more sponsors will come in, and their pay will improve.

It’s a chicken and egg situation

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In reply to brians_da_best

dunno how the ipl has anything to do with player qality....kraigg and shai have never played in the ipl......and they still average under 35

In reply to b4u8me2
A bunch of shameless, barefaced hypocrites pontificating with a Holier than Thou attitude whilst they themselves are bussing their tails seeking the Yankee dollar or the Queen's pound rather than stay home and clean trench or do some farming to "develop" the homeland.
Ironical.
No, the artists/players must remain subjects of abuse and neglect by the massa allegedly "in charge" of mismanagement.
Any good management should be able to incorporate the various facets at play.
Instead they call the artists money hungry, dunces, etc. get their sycophants to deride the players for whom it is the only source of income.

In reply to goofballs

Did you hear what shiv had to say on the issue?

And Kalicharan a few weeks back

In reply to goofballs

Well said.

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In reply to brians_da_best

Who care about Mr Bat for Yourself

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In reply to b4u8me2

Club football either stops for International football or those clubs continue to play while those selected play International football.

Nobody would begrudge those away at IPL earning the riches they get offered, however, when you've got guys ruling themselves out of International duty for various reasons only to turn out at some T/20 competition elsewhere, or to not bother turning up for fitness tests then you've rightly got to question the commitment and desire of those who are doing it.

In reply to WICFan

This has been ICC's problem since franchise cricket became a thing. They failed to set parameters and guidelines and here we are, with the less influential Full Member Boards struggling to have their best available sides for international duty.

Maybe it's time for an International Players' union of some sort to unite and demand better from the ICC and its boards. Problem is that the only realistic agreement that could come from that is a diminishing of the international calendar (ie fewer bilateral series, and thus fewer $ to the Boards, but the international teams would be at full strength)?

In reply to brians_da_best

Kindly point me in the direction of these "top players"? We need to start producing top players. That's what an Academy and a strong domestic league does.

In reply to bdaTryangle

i think that is part of the reason for the test championship....less series but more meaningful series. Also, the icc did this to themselves. Through the chaos that is the BCCI, they started asking all teams to qualify for global tournaments. People had to create t20 series and odi series, some times in the gaps between test series just to get points to automatically qualify. They decreased the amount of tests and test series, but increased the odi and t20 quantum. And odis are fast becoming irrelevant

In reply to Jumpstart

England about to play 3 ODI's in Australia just days after winning the T/20 WC.

Covid has affected the calendar, but the ICC continue to try and justify the calendar while giving more and more time to the IPL.

The more you feed an animal, the more it'll come back looking more.

I really do think come the next ftp, test cricket will become two divisions, possibly even 3 with an NFL style format, with breadcrumbs for the rest being a visit of one of the big 3 for a limit overs series of some sort every once in a while.

In reply to VoopsandOut

Our best results as a national team came during times when the vast majority of the squads played abroad in foreign leagues

1973…..with Steve David, Gally Cummings, Warren Archibald, Kelvin Barclay, LeRoy DeLeon, etc we’re all pros in the then NASL. They weren’t playing together far less training together outside of when they got together for a brief time on national team duty.

2006 with the Soca Warriors that qualified for the World Cup with 3 local based players in a squad of 23

That talk about training together under one coach doesn’t really hold water.

It came close in 1989 with the Strike Squad but that was the exception rather than the rule.

In reply to WICFan

thing is that they have to keep on pleasing india. The bcci has a net worth of 2 billion US dollars. The icc has a net worth of 2.5 billion dollars. There is no cricket without the bcci, with all their chaos

And remember the years prior to the IPL, essentially the atmosphere in which it was devised, created and sanctioned: match fixing, hansie cronje, problems with sponsorship and finally the ICL which many then current or recently retired players went to or considered going to. The IPL came in the nick of time, offering salaries most, if not all of the boards could only dream of. It served as a buffer against match fixing for most of the players. So without the ipl, we would go back to the days of player strikes and limited money in cricket. Compare, for example, the money the WI would have received for one Tri-series in Australia(then the richest tournament) to the money a WI player, in the lowest IPL payment bracket would get. The two aren't comparable even when the WI player is at base price

In reply to imusic

real talk

In reply to Jumpstart

To be fair, that issue hasn't gone away since IPL and various other professional leagues/tourneys. Most players aren't getting life-changing money and are still vulnerable to getting approached and exploited.

But yes, the ICC are currently beholden to BCCI and the TV folks. Even the ECB's role is as a distant second fiddle.

In reply to Halliwell

Which person does not seek greener pastures?
Show me a man without ambition and motivation and I show you a dead, or anhedonic (like dead) man.
Maybe the pontificators here or the have beens in Caribbean politics have nothing better to do.

How many run away slaves return to the plantation to "give back" to the slave masters, even the ones who couldn't make a living outside of massa?
Upto the Sixties, Guyanese were very happy to return home after getting qualifications abroad.
Upto the 1980s, from personal observations, Trinis were proud to return home to work and live there.
Why? Conditions were great, feasible for prosperity and goob livin. They were appreciated and they were not treated like crap or like in Guyana, discriminated against or have to join lines, worry about being robbed by the police/army and almost everybody else.

So, if you treat them like a plantation slave, say they have no talent, they are dunces, play them one or two games and send them into oblivion, they will come running back?

In reply to goofballs
Weren't there professional leagues like since the days of the greatest Trini, Sir Learie Constatine, who I read a lot about in my school days?
Didn't most of our star players, who were also real stars, play in English county or in Sheffield Shield, etc?
Were they money hungry, trying to put bread on the table?
What's the diference now with IPL compared to those days when the slected few were given contract by WICB to come and play for WI getting compensated for missing out on county cricket. Or Burnham using his magic for Clive Lloyd? One of the greatest cricket act of all times.
Why are things different now?
The wannabe slave mastes who think cricket is their momma and pappa's cake shop don't give a shit.
No interpersonal or management skills to work out a practical arrangement. I think it is a tie between not caring and not having management skills but just to crack the cat o'nine.

BTW, WI cricket would be far worse if the guys don't see real competition leaving the Peter Lashleys, McMorrises, Bynoes, Darren Gangas, Devon Smiths to be superstars like a frog in a little pond.

In reply to Jumpstart

On the flipside, look at Pooran and Hetty and how their promising talents seem to have hit a wall.

The point is you develop your cricket talent first before jumping 100% into T20, not the other way around.

In reply to brians_da_best

Why these washed up ole time players sound juss like a bunch of grumpy, bigoted and self righteous ole men who basically have a bone to pick.
(Not just on CCC). They never got what the current folks are getting. Jealousy.
In almost all sports, across the world. They were the saints, after the fact, when comparing what they made to current players.
I don't have a horse in this race but
Didn't Shiv go to IPL but his Pokiness couldn't make side?
Didn't he boycott his teammates in their boycott of WICB?
Wasn't he the first one in line to congratulate PNC when they won although his villager Jagdeo allegedly helped him out?
Burnham Magic rewarded him with one straight drive up his
So many other issues to debunk this sainthood projection.

Didn't "Kalli" rush to join Packer but because of contratual issues couldn't play so he was the "saint" for WI Cricket not "money hungry" as he allegedly didn't join the Packer circus. He got his reward when the Packer guys returned.
He didn't go to South Africa for money?

Like the Trumpites, people would worship and glorify their heroes and get oblivious to facts, much less logic. Not just with Guyanese.
Every island has their Islanditis affliction.