West Indies pulled out of their ongoing India tour, thanks to a pay dispute between the players and the WICB
Cracking the whip, a livid BCCI on Tuesday suspended all bilateral cricket tours with West Indies and decided to initiate legal proceedings against the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for abruptly cancelling its tour of India last week.
The West Indians were scheduled to play five ODIs, one T20 and three Tests matches during the tour between October 8 and November 19. However, due to an ongoing pay dispute between the WICB and the West Indian cricketers their tour was cancelled.
"The West Indies Cricket Board has informed the BCCI of its decision to cancel the rest of its ongoing tour to India because of a dispute with its players, and has advised the BCCI that its players will return home immediately," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel said.
"The reason given by WICB is that there were internal issues among their boys. The BCCI will be going to ICC and planning to sue the WICB and claim for damages. We will not take this lying down as we have cooperated with them in every aspect," Patel added.
"The BCCI is shocked and extremely disappointed at the decision taken by the WICB. The WICB's inability to resolve internal issues with its players and allowing the same to affect an ongoing bilateral series does not reflect well on any of those involved. The withdrawal gives little thought to the future of the game, the players and the long standing relations between the BCCI and the WICB," a strongly-worded statement from the BCCI said.
The tough stand by the BCCI, which has incurred heavy losses for the abandonment of the series, was taken by the all-powerful Working Committee which met in Hyderbad to decide the future course of action. The decision to suspend all cricket tours with West Indies and initiate legal action was taken "unanimously" by the Working Committee members.
"BCCI will initiate legal proceedings against West Indies Cricket Board due to the abrupt cancellation of this tour. All Bilateral tours between BCCI and WICB stand suspended," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel said in a brief statement after the meeting.
The BCCI also appreciated the gesture of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board for accepting the offer of playing a five-match ODI series at such a short notice.
"The Members appreciated the gesture of Sri Lankan Cricket Board for having accepted our request to play 5 ODIs starting from 2nd of November 2014, at such a short notice. This tour is in lieu of their scheduled tour to India next year which will be reciprocated by India touring Sri Lanka in months of July/August 2015," the statement said.
The venues for the five ODIs will be Cuttack, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad and the detailed itinerary will be announced shortly.
The BCCI statement, however, did not specify the exact period of suspension of cricketing tours between the BCCI and the WICB. It is learnt that the majority of the members were in favour of taking a hard stand against the WICB for aborting the tour after playing four ODIs.
It now remains to be seen how things pan out for the West Indies in the near future.
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