Competitive value

[mikesiva]

'Kids are proudly wearing their CPL jerseys, the players have school visits written into their contracts, and the CPL management make it very clear that helping the grassroots game is as much part of their goals as any financial reward. There is plenty of evidence that these are more than just empty promises. O'Donohoe is very proud of the growth that the league has shown over the last three years. TV viewership is up to 92 million and attendances have increased 44% in last year, thanks to a move to more floodlit matches after an experiment with day-time games to better suit a worldwide TV audience....the CPL has gone a long way towards revitalising confidence in cricket in the Caribbean....Outside of the Caribbean, there may be a lingering cynicism about Stanford's original involvement in cricket, but within the region, his legacy remains mixed. For all of his failings, Stanford "got" T20 cricket and where it belonged in modern Caribbean culture. In many ways the CPL is the natural progression of his vision. Had the Stanford circus continued, it may well have ended up looking much like the current set-up, with its Indian investment and expansion into the USA.'

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/co ... 76097.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kids proudly wearing their CPL jerseys, which are also their national jerseys...they don't wear West Indies jerseys with that pride any more.

[mikesiva]

Colin Benjamin has an interview with Nikita Miller, raising the obvious...why the corrupt WICB refuse to pick him, even though he continually outperforms the other spinners in the region:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/ ... 72396.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'Miller, who has an outstanding first-class record - 428 wickets in 84 matches at an astounding average of 16.64 - and was a major player in Jamaica winning six first-class titles between 2007 and 2014, those aforementioned reasons have probably played a part in the last three West Indies chairmen of selectors - Clyde Butts, Clive Lloyd and Courtney Browne - ignoring him for Test cricket. "If called up to do a job [by West Indies], will do to best of ability - but my mind is not really on it," Miller said. "The one thing I'd say about criticism of whether I could replicate my domestic performances at Test level, and can only speak for myself - I have played in A team cricket in 2013 versus India and Sri Lanka, playing against guys like [Virender] Sehwag, [Gautam] Gambhir, [Cheteshwar] Pujara, Yuvraj [Singh] and got five-wicket hauls and was the leading West Indies A wicket-taker. Yes, the standard (of West Indies domestic cricket) could improve to another level, but if it was I believe I'd still do well, because if you're good, you perform despite the standard."'

[Gils]

Recently BWICBC suggested the senior players bring no value to the West Indies brand, do they still hold this position and how can such an ideological dichotomy be resolved

But it's a fight that is long and seemingly everlasting.

An appeal for more time, nothing else, regurgitated every 5 years. #Rinseandrepeat

The fact is our current structure creates nothing but mediocrity. It's broken, unbalanced and simply wastes any decent talent that does manage to find it's way through the mud. This is a systematic thing that has been developed due to years of neglect.

That’s what this very thread has been telling you and what you have fought against for some time now, no new ground is being broken here.

So it's gonna be hard to reverse this over the course of a few years. Our cricket is mentally, and physically on the floor right now.

We showed you who is responsible too but you don’t seem to have recognised that. Through omission you suggest the managers of this mediocrity would simply carry on as usual...ensuring your continued occupancy at the trough in the process.

Many believe it will remain that way for the foreseeable future, and that may be true, but I see hope is the incredible youngsters we have coming through who recently won a world cup and won a series in South Africa and Zimbabwe...........

Postulating on imponderables and promising the future, with no tangible solutions for the problems that exist today. No road map to improvement just the hint of a suggestion that BWICBC will soon be bolstering the Test team with U 15's/U19's.

I'm still writing my report about how to fix things. It's been a long and hard road and it's taken me months. If one really looks deep into our cricket, you'll find that there is deep, deep problems to be addressed.

We already knew that. The apparent remedy is once again simply to promise the future. Even G Boycott, among many others, is better placed to make observations on cricket matters but the BWICBC will no doubt ignore his latest observations and continue their course as they have done for years. This private company has proven conclusively time and time again that they won’t take advice from any non-shareholders, just ask cari-come. So why should we expect anyone to take what you say seriously....

Being close to the action the best you could hope to do is offer up an explanation for the fact with so many top top spinners taking sooo many wickets in PCL how the BWICBC would select a net bowler into Test cricket ahead of them all

Edit. my pops wont thank me for quoting geoffrey boycott, I should have known better.

[mikesiva]

'In the year before the 2016 World T20, five West Indies squad members had played T20 cricket exclusively, compared to none from any other side in the tournament. Badree has not even played a domestic 50-over match since 2013. A long-time representative on the West Indian Players' Association, Badree believes that bad relations with the board "in a way worked out well for the players. Obviously when we started, and when the whole issue started, there were not so many T20 leagues around the world. But as the T20 leagues came aboard, the players had more opportunities to go outside and represent different franchises, different teams, and make an honest living - a decent living at that.'

http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/ ... ings-again" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

T20 cricket is the future in the Caribbean.

[Gils]

Btw...If the BWICBC, and compliant BL's, were so impressed with the integrity of it's 'brand then there would be no reason to rebrand or change their name to windies.

For further clarity and historical context, there is no nation or region on the face of the earth name windies. No nation, monarchy, president, prime minister, judicial, legislative or executive branch's, single currency, anthem, flag etc.

T20 cricket is the future in the Caribbean.

I think its fair to assume at this point that T20 is not going away, no matter how much those with a 19th century outlook protest to the contrary.

So my two observations are will the BWICBC T20i1st XI still maintain the same level of success after Pollard, Big Bravo, Narine, Gayle and Samuels no longer contract with the ....windies (lol)....And, exactly how irrelevant will BWICBC ODI and Test cricket become when T20i's are accepted as an Olympic sport, along with the IOC's insistence that only National teams participate in their competitions ?