West Indies players sign contracts after week long crisis

The WICB has confirmed the participation of 12 players out of the 15-member World T20 2016 squad they named over a week ago, thus ending a week long contract crisis between the WICB and the players. The WI players signing up for the upcoming tournament comes as great news to cricket enthusiasts and fans alike. All the players except Keiron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Darren Bravo will participate in the tournament.

Earlier this week, Pollard and Narine were the first to withdraw from the team, the former citing himself unfit due to injury and Narine being unable to alter his bowling action following his ban from bowling in international cricket. Darren Bravo, on the other hand, has stated that he is focussing on the longer formats of the game and hence will not take part in the tournament.

WICB haven’t yet named a replacement for Bravo but Ashley Nurse and Carlos Brathwaite will replace Narine and Pollard.

The contract crisis which arose as a result of differences between players and the board over increasing pay cuts threatened cricket fans into thinking that West Indies will be represented by a second string team in the World T20. But it seems like the West Indies players are keen to play in India next month and hence have resolved the issue. The fans will be delighted to see the likes of T20 specialists Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, and others play in the tournament.

West Indies squad for the World T20 2016:

Darren Sammy (C), Sulieman Benn, Jason Holder, Andre Fletcher, Dwayne Bravo, Samuel Badree, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin, Chris Gayle, Ashley Nurse, Carlos Brathwaite.

(Darren Bravo’s replacement is yet to be named)

Written by Shabrish B M