Open letter to ICC following decisions on West Indies and Nepal

Are you of the impression that all wrong is at the end of the cricketers and all right at the end of WICB?

Dear ICC,

First things first, cricket fraternity stands in unison to applause all your Board members for finally taking out time for a meeting that had some of the most derisory decisions being arrived at, after the T20 World Cup that ended three weeks ago. It will be safe to say that the Council hit new lows with a few of its decisions, with the highlight being the cancellation of Nepal’s membership and your resentment against truth that was put forth by the brave Darren Sammy. The West Indies captain — and the first captain ever to win two ICC World T20 tournaments spoke nothing but truth — but your dissent proved that the game has a very tough time ahead. ALSO READ: Simmons, Badree’s sacrifice and hapless state of WICB

In case if you are not aware, cricket in Nepal is being taken by its fans even more passionately than in India. If passion was the parameter, a handful of Nepal cricket fans can easily thrash the thousands in India, and may be even those in Bangladesh. But a certain clause in your Articles of Association now carries the danger of hampering the growth of cricket in a country which has just started to pick up.

Coming back to West Indies, it looks like you were not completely aware of the battles those ‘15 match-winners’ fought everyday, ever since they got together for a special journey. You do not seem to be aware that West Indies cricketers had no contracts in place — no guarantee of income by their cricket board — before it all began. West Indies cricketers had no uniforms, they were ridiculed by their own cricket board, critics, and even fans. Anyone who needed to take out his frustration had West Indies as the sitting duck. You do not look like being aware of any of this.

Chris Gayle said he donated the match fees to charity, since it was a joke. However, he was glad that he was lucky enough to return home with some prize money. ALSO READ: West Indies in T20 World Cup 2016 review: Darren Sammy’s ‘Champion’ side wins trophy and hearts

But you did not care. You did not ask West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) — even once — to get things in order; not to the knowledge of the cricket fraternity, that is. You did not even feel like looking into the contract issue that got resolved just a few days before the tournament. As the governing body of cricket whose primary duty is to safeguard the sport and those who play it, in a way, you failed West Indies cricketers. You failed cricket.

Not once did it occur to you that a former champion team was threatening to pull out from T20 World Cup and you had — if not a direct — but a moral responsibility to step in.

Since all that got over, and the anger against WICB and its pathetic behaviour have somewhat subsided, you decided to chip in with your valuable observation, which is, to say the least, an embarrassment to the game of cricket.

Here is what you had to say:

“The Board considered the behavior of some of the West Indies players in the immediate aftermath of the final, and unanimously agreed that certain comments and actions were inappropriate, disrespectful and brought the event into disrepute. The Board acknowledged an apology by the WICB but was disappointed to note that such behavior had detracted from the success of what was otherwise a magnificent tournament and final.

“The Board also noted that very serious consideration had been given to bringing Code of Conduct charges in respect of the behavior of the West Indies players and emphasised that this was not acceptable conduct at ICC Events played out on a world stage in front of millions of people around the globe.”

Sammy’s emotional press conference after West Indies’ World T20 win was one of those rare moments in when the entire cricket fraternity came together to stand for what was right. The entire world cried out loud on that it was WICB that needed to mend its ways and not the players, but your assessment of the whole situation was just a massive embarrassment not only to cricket in the Caribbean, but for all those who strive for its prosperity.

ICC, if your Board ‘unanimously agreed that certain comments and actions were inappropriate, disrespectful and brought the event into disrepute’, then the cricket fraternity has a few questions. It needs to know what exactly brought ‘disrepute’, since it stood united to criticise the WICB.

If speaking the truth is bringing ‘disrepute’, then this kind of governance is totalitarian.

And, if you think the West Indies cricketers were wrong to criticise their board, did you, for once, even consider that what forced them to speak out all the negativity that resided in their lives on the occasion of a World Cup win? No man likes to recall their pains after arduous victories — but West Indies did.

To remind you, in their words, it was them against the world.

ICC, you gave ‘very serious consideration’ on imposing Code of Conduct on West Indies cricketers. For what? Speaking the truth? For speaking what pained them? From bringing out all the pain and suffering that they have gone through over all these years? For exposing one of your affiliated bodies for not doing what it is supposed to do and ill-treating its players!

Even the great Shivnarine Chanderpaul was not spared.

Are you of the impression that all wrong is at the end of the cricketers and all right at the end of WICB?

It looks like that is the impression, or else, one of your ridiculous Articles would have surely brought WICB and its menace in its right place.

Sammy was brave to speak out truth at a moment when all were listening. ICC, if anything, it is you who needs to realise what forced the West Indies captain to put his career on the line and spoke about all that went wrong. WICB’s stubbornness forced Sammy to speak from a stage when the entire world was listening — he and his men were done whining in press conferences and on social media.

Hope you realise how grossly wrong your reading of the whole situation was.

Thank you.

Someone who still cares about cricket.

(Devarchit Varma is senior writer with CricketCountry. He can be followed on Twitter @Devarchit)