Financial options to make West Indies’ Down Under tour possible
Australia preparing financial options for WI tour
Nov 1, 2014
With West Indies abruptly pulling out of the India tour last month, Australia‘s financial officers have started working on the possible financial options to make the scheduled 2015 West Indies tour Down Under possible.
The exit of the West Indies team from the India tour has landed the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on trouble as they face legal actions and compensations from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as possible punishment from the ICC as well. It has also created a disagreement between captain Dwayne Bravo and batsman Marlon Samuels on their varied decisions during the pullout, reports The Voice.
As of now it stands, the BCCI has presently suspended all scheduled bilateral series against the Island nation.
With the Windies players, team officials and management form the board having met to resolve the issue, the Australian board is hoping for a quick recovery from the situation for West Indies from the situation so that they could be able to tour Australia next year. However, if they fail to come up with any solution, West Indies could also end up withdrawing from the 2015 ICC World Cup scheduled to be held early next year in Australia and New Zealand.
Wally Edwards, the chairman of Cricket Australia said during the Annual General Meeting (AGM), “I don’t believe it [West Indies] will be lost. I can’t imagine that. They’ve had disputes before. They’ve had ongoing rumblings there for quite while. I feel confident they will get resolved. Their president Dave Cameron is a smart guy and a capable guy. But I don’t know what’s caused the exact walk-out. They were playing along quite happily.”
James Sutherland, chief executive of Cricket Australia on the other hand said, “You’ve got to wonder how it can get to that. There was a little bit of wavering there, where it appeared at one stage that it was sorted and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. But we don’t know the ins and outs. We’ll hopefully know a bit more next week.”
If West Indies manage to tour Australia next year, it would come as big boost to the board, India and Australia as well. The prime reason that the West Indies players sighted for pullout was disagreement with the board regarding proper payment to the players.