They'd be a lot better if their board looked after them.
Loads of talent there, enough to at least compete with the best in all forms of the game.
I'm led to believe that they're paid more than NZC'ers vvvrulz. Just sayin'.
How many allrounders of Pollard (more a batsman in whites) Dre Russ (does not like bowling in long form cricket), DJ Bravo, Sammy (ineffective test bowler) and Braithwaite would actually make the test team anyway?
Keep in mind Braithwaite is still in the test team at this stage.
Gayle is a loss, no doubt, but he is older than BMac now.
It has been said before but the likes of Dre Russ and Badree have no real function in test cricket, and with Jason Holder captain and developing already, how many all rounders are needed? Badree has hardly been needed for ODI cricket with Narine starring previously.
WI board no doubt has issues. It is fractitious with all those competing countries, cultural differences and seems to lack good governance. But the West Indies test performances on field are a result of them lacking ace test bowlers (athletics steals a lot of young talent) and ace batsmen. Not more sloggy allrounders like Braithwaite. Their t20 strength of low e/r spinners and sloggy allrounders are not test guns. Even DJ Bravo, a player I am a fan of, had his test career dwindling after bright peaks on Strayan tours.
I have no issues with them being ODI mercenaries as a professional cricketers are free to maximize their earnings before the game is taken away from them; just as I would have no issues with Colin de Grandhomme or Andy Ellis, if they were more so talented, from doing the same. But they are prioritizing their more highly paid franchise T20 events and not making themselves available under a full central contract. With the exception of Gayle, it is T20 cricket that has made these guys the superstar names they are in cricket, but outside the Big 3, ICC test members still have to pay the test and ODI cricketers, and the domestic FC pathway cricket. Yes, a couple, or more of these T20 superstars slot straight into the ODI team, but not all of them. But they need to centrally contract players who are available all the time, not when it suits as there is no lucrative T20 tournament on.
Outside the Big 3, talent will continue to retire or be unavailable. NZ has a major problem now with the PSL - Grant Elliot, albeit at 37 years of age, has retired from ODI cricket - after he said earlier this year that he wanted to be at the next World Cup. The PSL - which he became famous in for his bowling, is a February tournament- and clashes with the NZ/WI summer. The Pakistanis were inviting Adam Milne to play as it was. Invitations to these T20 leagues for non current test players will continue.
Those who do not play test cricket, as well as ODI and T20, and are lower on central contracts or do not get one, are more inclined to maximise their earnings on the t20 circuits and only be avilable to their nations on a more limited basis. What the Windies T20 players are demanding are higher match payments, which are roughly equivalent if not already higher than NZ pays our players. They want to take from the funds for test cricketers (and odi players) from the central contract fund.
Darren Sammy is free to voice the financial interests of the T20 specialists wanting more money, and good on him, but outside the big 3, funds are far more limited in retaining talent for longer versions of the game. It will continue to grow as an issue in world cricket. The T20 specialists are basically asking for a reallocation of priorities in funding - to the t20 version of the game and not the test or domestic cricket side. There are only so many Indian tours and ICC event funds that go into the West Indies coffers, just like Safrica, NZ, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
I can understand their frustration that players of the big 3 countries are paid so much more handsomely than them, even when their talent is less, but unfortunately for them, they represent a mere 6 million or so people in the Carribean islands. Not 1.25 billion Indians, 23 million cricket mad Australians, or 50 million wealthy English persons. They're not a big 3 nation.
NZC paid a mere NZ $3,500.00 per ODI game and $2,348 per T20. These West Indians are getting at least $6,900 USD for a T20 game - if not more! They do not have it too bad. But they continue to fight for more money. Such is their right.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/69833566/Kane-Williamson-top-Mitchell-Santner-the-new-face-on-NZ-Cricket-contract-list
http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/icc-world-t20-viv-richards-bats-for-west-indies-stars-in-pay-dispute/
KW - if playing every T20, ODI, and test gets $350,000.00, BMac previously was on similar money. But BMac has IPL deals worth more than a million and bonuses, prize money etc if he is available for all games - especially the finals. It cost him a lot of money to play tests in England last year! This is the T20 reality for nations outside the big 3.
I understand that the West Indies are even as it stands, getting a fraction more more than NZC from the ICC:
http://www.totalsportek.com/cricket/new-icc-revenue-sharing-model/
The numbers may vary from site to site but invariably NZ is ranked below the West Indies and only above Bangas and Zimbos.
Steyn and ABDV have also voiced discontent recently. The superstars from non Big 3 (and even Straya and England) countries are better off on a franchise cricket calendar dominated model of elite sport and not an international cricket model - like ice hockey, basketball and soccer players, outside olympics and world cups (with a window of availability for qualifying and international friendlies). Obviously the NHL or NBA cricket equivalent would be located in India should it eventuate (unless cricket becomes an Olympic sport liked by the Chinese where they have the population and resources to implement the same or competing - EPL as against La Liga, for lack of a better alternative, or NRL v SL, again lack of a better alternative, or even better - find that they prefer international cricket and vote accordingly in the ICC for redistribution).
http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/889289.html
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/michael-clarke-and-david-warner-50-million-targets-of-new-rebel-cricket-league-20150430-1mwvad.html
This is why so many experts are predicting the death of test cricket in the next 5,10 or 20 years. If 1.25 billion Indians want an 8 month or longer IPL with 15-25+ teams then they have the cities, grounds, population and economy to fund it, just like USA likes Ice Hockey and Basketball.
