THE International Cricket Council (ICC) may have reprimanded the victorious Darren Sammy and his men for their actions and comments against their employers (West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). However, no action is likely to be taken against them, either by the parent body or the players’ association.“We cannot take any disciplinary action against them as most of the T20 team-players (male) are not the members of the association,” Wayne Lewis, the former batsman, who played 32 First Class matches, said exclusively over telephone from Jamaica on Thursday morning (India time).
Lewis is a secretary of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).
Captain Sammy’s criticism at the presentation was echoed by his teammate Dwayne Bravo, who went on to describe his board as the “most unprofessional” body in the world.
“All female players are members of the WIPA. However, only two players of the current Limited Overs men team are our members”, Lewis added.
“Guess they are unhappy with the new MoU (Memorandum of Understanding)/CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) signed between the WICB and WIPA. Well, I guess they cannot be forced to join a union (under clause). We have all the first class players as members, so they might return in due course,” the secretary hoped.
“We play cricket for the Caribbean people,” Marlon Samuels had said so with his padded feet lying on the table at the media-conference. The winning players removed their shirts and few of them threw them at the stands.
“Removing one’s shirt in public is really not against our culture. However, a number of players, the ones who did it in particular are aware of the Indian culture as they have played often enough to know the culture and maybe should have known better,” Lewis signed off.
For the record: Saurav Ganguly did so at Lord’s (July 2002) but his similar request to other players was politely turned down by Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Players are believed to have public-support and hence no disciplinary action is likely by the board, one of the affiliate board member said.