West Indies (WI), who used to dominate world cricket during 1970s to mid-1990s are currently struggling, both on and off the field, and former WI captain and batting icon Brian Lara believes it’s because Caribbean cricketers are preferring franchise leagues over the national team. He, however, refused to blame the players and instead insisted that they are justified in seeking better monetary avenues abroad. “It’s a very big problem, but first of all, let me make it very clear that I can’t blame a single player for wanting to pursue cricket as a career outside of the West Indies. There is a clear [financial] disparity when you compare playing five or six franchise leagues to playing for the West Indies. And you have to have empathy for that player. But you also have to look at what can we do at home to make sure that that player or future players understand that playing for the West Indies is also very important,” Lara told mid-day when asked if players preferring franchise leagues over national duty is the biggest problem for Caribbean cricket. Speaking to select media on the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards at a city hotel on Tuesday, Lara said that Cricket West Indies must find a way out of this difficult situation.
“The Indian Premier League has carved out a period of time which is exclusive for the IPL, but there are six or seven different leagues popping up around the world, and everybody wants to play in it. So, I think the onus is on the Cricket West Indies to find a way to create and unify the efforts of our young players who want to go out, but also have them playing for us,” added Lara, 56, who has scored over 22,000 runs in 430 international matches (131 Tests and 299 ODIs).
In the ongoing two-Test series Shubman Gill’s young team outclassed WI by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the first Test at Ahmedabad recently. The same WI team was bundled out for just 27 runs in the third Test against Australia at Kingston and lost the battle by 176 runs. Lara said that the issue with West Indies cricket is unique. “For a series against India, we want to play good cricket against the best team in the world, so you want your best players out there. You don`t want your best players in America or somewhere else around the world. This is not something that India suffers because your players play here. Everybody comes to play here. Also, England and Australia, I think they survive on the fact that their retainers [for players] are big retainers, so they need not go out and play cricket and run around the place. That’s why we [Cricket West Indies] will have to try and work on something,” Lara concluded.