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Gone with the Windies

Owing to pay dispute with their board, Caribbean players pull out of ongoing series with India; final ODI, lone T20 and three Tests remain cancelled; Sri Lanka agree to play 5-match ODI series in November

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In an unusual turn of events, the entire West Indies team was behind its captain Dwanye Bravo (centre) at the toss before the fourth ODI in Dharamshala on Friday. The visotors subsequently pulled out of the tour
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In a sensational turn of events, the West Indies team on Friday pulled out of the ongoing tour of India because of a payment dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).

The fourth ODI in Dharamsala, which India won by 59 runs, was the last contest of the series, with the visitors set to fly back home at the earliest. And that means the fifth ODI, one-off Twenty20 International, three-day warm-up game and three Tests stand cancelled.

"Shocked, surprised and extremely disappointed" because it is not used to such a situation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) used its good offices with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and announced a five-match ODI series starting November 1.

"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," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said in a hard-hitting statement.

"The BCCI will pursue all options available to protect its rights, whilst seeking appropriate action from the ICC to ensure that its interests and those of the game at large will not suffer any damage due to such acts of indiscretion," he added.

Incredibly enough, it took the BCCI just over an hour to announce the Sri Lanka series. "SLC has confirmed a five-match ODI series between India and Sri Lanka, to be played from November 1," Patel said in the second release.

Indications are that the BCCI will soon write to the International Cricket Council, of which BCCI president-in-abeyance N Srinivasan is chairman. According to a top ICC official, the BCCI and WICB will have to "sit down and sort this out on their own".

"Look, the ICC is no longer involved in scheduling series between member nations. They have signed a contractually binding bilateral agreement. But yes, if the BCCI comes to the ICC, then we will look into the issue," the official told dna.

That said, an embarrassed BCCI may hit the WICB hard for jeopardising the series. Given that it controls the sport in every perceivable way, the BCCI could well snub the WICB by ensuring the Indian team doesn't tour the Caribbean isles. Why, it could even slap the West Indian players with an IPL ban. Clearly, this is just the start.

If not for BCCI joint-secretary Anurag Thakur, who heads the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, the West Indies players would have refused to play the fourth ODI too. "Hell bent not to play" in Dharamsala, the visitors agreed only after repeated requests from Thakur, who told them the match was a sold-out affair.

At the toss, West Indies skipper Dwayne Bravo was accompanied by his teammates. There, Bravo told the player-turned-commentator Ian Bishop that it was "time to make a decision".

The main reason for this ugly dispute the players and WIPA is the "bargaining agreement" signed between WIPA and WICB last month. Bravo, who represents the players, had publicly said that WIPA president and chief executive Wavell Hinds (the former left-handed opener) had "hoodwinked" the players by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the board without the players' approval.

On the eve of the series opener in Kochi, Bravo had threatened that if Hinds did not budge, then the players would be forced to go on a strike or pull out of the series. Things got apparently out of hand when Hinds refused to give up his position.. Worse, the WICB rubbished the players' concerns. So much so that WICB president Dave Cameron told Bravo that the board would deal with WIPA and not the players.

In the meanwhile, the BCCI has called for an emergency working committee meeting on October 21 in Hyderabad.

Late on Friday, the WICB tried its best to salvage the situation by saying that it had nothing to do with the players decision to pull out. The BCCI, however, quashed the WICB's hopes. In a press release narrating the timeline of the issue, the BCCI said, "This makes it clear that all along, the WICB was withdrawing its team if a resolution was not reached in the issue with their players."

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