By Gaurang
June 15 2015

Just as the Western media failed to recognize the role of the IPL in the rise of New Zealand cricket it has falsely blamed the IPL for the fall of West Indies cricket.  If the IPL were really the problem then countries like Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand who have a large number of players playing in the IPL would be in shambles while England and Pakistan would be ruling the roost as they hardly have any playing in the IPL.  In fact the truth is the decline of the West Indies has very little to do with the IPL.

The cricket boards all receive a cut from the money provided by IPL to players who are from that country.  So if anything, the West Indies cricket board is making money by having so many of its players playing in the IPL.   What is really the issue is a hidebound and decrepit adminstrative set up which has failed to keep up with the times.  Instead of embracing the opportunity that the IPL has offered some of its players to become financially secure, so they can then afford to play for a board which is not able to compensate them well the board has acted like a petulant child and the proverbal dog in the manger.

One only has to see the way players from New Zealand whose board is similarly financially strapped are encouraged by their national board to play BOTH IPL and traditional cricket to see how with better foresight the petty bureaucrats in the WICB could have used the opportunity offered by the IPL to forge a strong West Indies team. 

First of all the WICB should agree that it will provide a window where it will eschew national cricket during the April-May period when the IPL is played.  Second, they should consider the IPL players for selection in the national side.  If some adminstrator, coach or ex-player feels slighted by this, they should be told to get with the program, or else a foreign coach should be hired, who will not be troubled by this fact.  Finally, some of the money earned by the WICB from the IPL should be spent on making those players who don't get IPL contracts, since there are only a limited number of spots available, and not everybody is IPL material, to spread the wealth around a bit, instead of using it for their own expenses.

People forget that even during the heyday of the West Indies under Clive Lloyd and later Vivian Richards and Richie Richardson, the West Indies players were always in a financially precarious position.  Without that fact Kerry Packer would never have succeeded in his World Series Cricket experiment in enticing almost the entire West Indies team.  Also, even before Packer and also after him, West Indies players played in County cricket to earn their bread.  Additionally, in the case of some players, they were lured by the relatively large amount of money offered by sponsors to go on Rebel tours to South Africa, risking life-bans as that country officially still had apartheid in place.  Recently, the sleazy Sanford cricket circus showed that due to the relative poverty of Windies board they are suckers for any Mr. Moneybags who flashes some cash.   

Compared to the intrusion into West Indies cricket from Packer, English County cricket and South African rebel tours, etc. the IPL's short  (It is only 6-8 weeks or so long) window of intrusion and the large financial windfall it provides gives the West Indies players and the board, if it had administrators who truly had the interest of players' at heart, instead of egomaniacal self-aggrandizing power hungry petty dictators, then the IPL and the riches it generates could be used to build West Indies into a formidable cricket force once again. 

The IPL and the Fall of the West Indies

Discussion started by Indian Cricket Fever (IP Logged), 15/06/2015 01:39

Indian Cricket Fever
15/06/2015 01:39

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015:08:10:18:59:15 by Birbal.

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Birbal
15/06/2015 03:18

Looking at the SAD crowds even in Jamaica the home of Chris Gayle and then looking at this article from BBC...where in his 3 week stint in English T20 Gayle is dubbed WORLD BOSS by his county employer... one wonders what DUMB F..Ks run Windies Cricket?

Even his mere presence would have lit up the 2 Test series... let alone the fact that he almost 100% would have scored more than the piddly runs the Windies openers did...

[www.bbc.com]

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Meet_New_Mr_India
15/06/2015 19:52

I believe its Clive Llyod who has f..ked everyone up.. even before the WCup started they have given up on winning and said they were building for next WCup.

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Birbal
15/06/2015 20:32

So ironical... as Lloyd was the guy who sold out to Packer... and got his entire team to sign up with Kerry. If Lloyd had held out... don't think Packer would have been very successful...

England were able to RESIST Packer's temptation because most players made their living (quite a decent one at that) in the County cricket system... Tony Grieg as an outsider (he was born in South Africa) was one of the few "English" players to sign up with Packer... and the only ones who joined Tony were the oldies and ones close to retirement... i.e. Knott, Underwood, Snow...

The two teams that Packer could BUY were the Windies and Pakistanis... whose players both anyway made money as mercenaries in County cricket...

Indian players had day jobs as bank execs and execs in private corporates to take care of day to day living expenses... and they were starting to get BIG money from adverts... remember the Palmolive Gavaskar Ads, the Brylcream Engineer Ads, etc...so they were not as susceptible...

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Birbal
05/04/2016 18:49

Bump... West Indies are BENEFITTING from IPL BIG TIME... but the STUPID babus of WICB have NO CLUE...

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Birbal
05/04/2016 19:05

Carlos Braithwaite was paid 42 Million Rupees by the Delhi Daredevils... his base price was a tiny INR 30 thousand. He got over a thousand times his starting price... but DD will still think he was worth it.

Some SCOUT for DD did his/her homework... Maybe BCCI should hire him/her to scour the Indian Domestic cricket...

Actually, they probably are doing so. Pawan Negi got over INR 80 million... whether he is worth it is yet to be determined...but IPL has brought PROFESSIONALISM to all aspects of the sport...including talent scouting and team selection...

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