West Indies players threaten England tour boycott

[Sachinism]

West Indies' spring tour of England could be severely undermined after it emerged five senior Caribbean players were threatening to withdraw from the series and play in the lucrative IPL. Talks between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players' Association ended after two days without any progress in the ongoing dispute between them, and players including Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are understood to be considering standing down from national duties in protest. The one obstacle they would need to overcame before they could switch to the IPL would be the need for them to obtain No Objection Certificates from the WICB first. If it refused, there would be little they could do as the Indian board is unlikely to force the issue. As things stand, most of the senior West Indies players are on central contracts which expire at the end of the England series. These were supposed to have been renegotiated some time back, but one insider close to the negotiations told Cricinfo the board were "not protecting the interests of sponsors and key stakeholders" by failing to do ensure that was done. The insider told Cricinfo the players were "exceptionally greedy" adding that "it's Groundhog Day every year". Last Friday, players refused to start three domestic one-day matches, while the national team blanked out Digicel branding on their kit with masking tape during the ODI against England. A number of the team also boycotted a Digicel event in Guyana at the weekend. Dinanath Ramnarine, WIPA's chief executive who resigned from the WICB executive last week, refused to comment as he left the meeting in Bridgetown. It is believed that further talks are planned for early next week. Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo and managing editor of ESPN Digital Media in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

[Sachinism]

WI realise England is a waste of time, it will probably rain anyway I was readying the other day that the real reason why the IPL was not brought to England was because it would clash with ENG-WI series and Sky Sports were worried about losing viewers, looks like they may lose out anyway lol

[cowboysfan]

WICB is so useless and ineffective.there is always some controversy brewing over there.IPL should not allow these windies players who have abandoned their national team-its a disgrace.why did they agree to play england when sri lanka refused because of the date clash with IPL?

[Shane]

Lulz @ England, first Sri Lanka and now may be the Windies

[Lord]

Lulz @ England' date=' first Sri Lanka and now may be the Windies[/quote'] good now they have extra time to prepare for the Ashes:haha:

[Guest gaurav_indian]

Yeah there is no point in playing back to back series against the same team.Aus and SA are exception though.Even some english players want that to happen.B->

[Ram]

Didn’t the IPL organizers already declare that they will not entertain players who deliberately miss games of their national side or retire early to take part in IPL? I remember when the whole Symonds-Munkee controversy erupted, there was this talk of him retiring from international cricket and taking part in IPL only. Then, Modi issued a statement something along the lines of ‘We wont entertain players who ditch their home boards..’ Besides, if that happens, the different home boards will get pissed off at IPL, which will inturn convince them to soften their stand against ICL, which will inturn considerably weaken IPL’s monopoly in the franchise-based cricket model.

[Feed]

Gayle rubbishes rumours of ODI boycott Captain Chris Gayle has rubbished rumors of West Indies boycotting the rest of the one-day international series against England. More... Gayle rubbishes rumours of ODI boycott March 26 2009 at 11:08PM By Craig Cozier Bridgetown, Barbados - Captain Chris Gayle rubbished rumors of West Indies boycotting the rest of the one-day international series against England because of another dispute with the national cricket board. The third one-dayer in the five-match series is on Friday. "There wasn't any threat made about boycotting any games, not to my knowledge," Gayle said after training on Thursday. "If the game wasn't supposed to go on, I'd be home cocking up my legs now. 'When our guys step across the rope, we are all ready for cricket' "We're making a lot of progress (on negotiations with the West Indies Cricket Board) which is good. There has been speculation about no game and so forth but the games will be going on." The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the WICB met in Barbados over the past two days to discuss players' concerns over a range of issues. WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine, in tendering his resignation from the WICB last week, said that chief among the problems was the WICB's continued bypassing of WIPA on important decisions. Also among WIPA's complaints were nonpayment of fees for recent tours, retainer contracts and for injury compensation, scheduling of tours and provision for the Provident Fund which supplies pensions for retired players. Gayle said he had confidence in Ramnarine, the former test legspinner, and his team would not be distracted by events off the field as it prepared for Friday's match. 'When our guys step across the rope, we are all ready for cricket' The series was level at 1-1 after the two matches last week in Guyana. "We are all professional. I made it very clear to the players," Gayle said. "When our guys step across the rope, we are all ready for cricket. "We are all big men here so we have to take responsibility in whatever we do. At the same time, when it's cricket, we are ready for the game of cricket. This won't affect our game." England has been boosted by the return to fitness of talismanic allrounder Andrew Flintoff. Flintoff was laid low by a hip injury a month ago and he missed the final two tests of the series as well as the Twenty20 international and last weekend's one-dayers. Captain Andrew Strauss was pleased to have back the 31-year-old for the first time since mid-February. "Freddie is one of those guys that can win you a game with either bat or ball in one-day international cricket, which is very, very rare," Strauss said. "He's got the potential of having a decisive impact on the series. "He's sounding very confident in his body. I think he's raring to go. You could see it in the nets yesterday how excited he was about getting back on the cricket pitch again." Flintoff was likely to replace offspinner Gareth Batty in the 11 that played both matches in Guyana. Gayle said West Indies would likely choose the same 11 that won the second match in Guyana, meaning that new cap Dale Richards and the recalled Ravi Rampaul would miss out. Squads: West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderaul, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Nikita Miller, Fidel Edwards, Lionel Baker, Ravi Rampaul, Dale Richards. England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Matt Prior, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Adil Rashid, Ian Bell, Steve Davies, Amjad Khan. - Sapa-AP

[Tapioca]

Didn’t the IPL organizers already declare that they will not entertain players who deliberately miss games of their national side or retire early to take part in IPL?

The players also supposedly need a no objection certificate from their cricket boards. But don't worry about all that. Modi will find an excuse.