Just play ball!

An improved TT four-day team would not translate though into a better performing West Indies Test team as the problems plaguing West Indies cricket supersedes the absence of talent.

The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) - similar to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) - has developed a problem in its communication and relationship with its senior players. An improvement in this regard by the TTCB can be the template to show the WICB hierarchy how to work together with all stakeholders for the good of our cricket.

Indeed, a lot of the players the WICB seem to have a problem with are Trinidadians and these same players also enjoy a less than cordial relationship with the TTCB. Dance ah yard before yuh dance abroad is a well-known Jamaican proverb and the TTCB, led by Azim Bassarath, can seize upon this opportunity to fix their own problems.

In any sport - basketball, football, cricket, tennis - the major stakeholder is the players. Last to have realised this has been the players, initially just grateful to play the game they love and be paid for it, players were hesitant to discuss the administration of the sport, politics or social ills.

As millions begin to pour in their pockets though and a better sense of their value to the team, players have become more vocal and realised they are the true assets being utilised for monetary gain by their employers.

One senior West Indies player who preferred to stay anonymous admitted that financial security has emboldened a lot of regional players and opened their eyes as to their worth in the sport.

“In the Caribbean, whichever sport you playing, that’s your only way of financial gain for your family so you stick (out) a lot of nonsense and try to ignore it.

When you reach a position where you’re financially stable, you will be able to try to highlight it in a subtle way, sometimes in a way they mightn’t like and sometimes in a way you might be arrogant and that’s the truth and fact in it,” he said.

Here in the Caribbean, the jostling for position is still taking place between athletes and those behind the scenes who run the sport.

There seems to be no compromise and instead the wielding of the “Big Stick” has been commonplace over the past two years by the WICB honchos.

Similar to what is transpiring in the US with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick who is protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem, cricket’s regional authorities just want our athletes to play ball.

The US women’s football team refused to play on a substandard artificial surface in Hawaii against TT in December 2015 and the game was subsequently abandoned. A select group of women footballers were also suing FIFA for gender discrimination after all venues for the 2015 World Cup in Canada were held on artificial turf.

Here in the region, administrators still get stiff jaws hearing those that make them money speak up on how they should do their job.

“They just want you to turn up and play,” said the West Indies cricketer, “that is the mentality on the West Indies. It’s like ‘why don’t you just turn up, play the people cricket and leave?’ If you care about the cricket, and care about certain things you won’t just want people to turn up, you’ll engage the senior players and want to hear examples about how we can get the thing going forward and achieve the same things we want but in a different medium rather than in a dictatorial sort of way.” Over the weekend, the TTCB sent out an email under the heading “Big Bird Slams Bravo” which carried a link to a story published in Barbados Today entitled ‘Time to move on from the Dwayne Bravos’.

The article, written by Keith Holder, criticised Bravo for leading “a pull-out midway through the tour of India over player-payment issues” but fails to mention that the very Task Force commissioned by the WICB to investigate the circumstances surrounding the scandalous incident in October 2014 found the WICB and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) principally culpable for what transpired and not the players.

Holder also described Bravo as “mischievous” for his comments on the disarray the Twenty20 team was during their recent series against Pakistan which they lost 0-3, stating he is batting like “a desperate T20 player knowing that his international career is virtually over.” Whatever Holder’s sentiments are, whether right or wrong, he is entitled to his opinions but what is the TTCB motive behind sending this article to all its media contacts? Can you envisage the Lakers administration promoting an article last season saying Kobe should retire? Will the Argentina FA send to its media contacts an article saying Lionel Messi cost them the Copa America and World Cup finals? It bring to memory the actions of WICB president Dave Cameron who got into hot water during the 2015 World Cup for retweeting a fan’s criticism of Chris Gyale during an actual game.

Bravo has made the TTCB a lot of money. The 33-year-old allrounder was part of the 2009 Red Force team that reached the final of the defunct Twenty20 Champions League, finishing with the most wickets in the tournament as TT lost a heart-breaking final to New South Wales Blues. The team received $1.3 million for their second place finish.

In 2011 and 2013, Bravo represented the Chennai Super Kings at the same competition instead of the Red Force with BCCI rules stating that the TTCB were entitled to US$150,000 compensation each time.

The TTCB has not had the best of relations with Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Rayad Emrit and Denesh Ramdin of late but surely being an accessory to the attack on one of its greatest ever players and a former captain of the red, white and black is not necessary.

Large sums of money in the T20 format has given players a sense of independence which sometimes spill into arrogance as the regional cricketer admitted and with no party compromising, the centre cannot hold and things fall apart.

The WICB has shown that it is stubborn enough to destroy the only successful West Indies team - its T20 - if players or even its coach do not conform.

The TTCB’s mission statement is “to develop and sustain cricket as the most successfully organised sport in Trinidad and Tobago and the National Team as the best in the West Indies, in collaboration with its players,” which shows that they recognise the importance of its main asset.

It’s now left for them to treat them as such an perhaps pave the way for improved player-board relations at the West Indies level.