Pull-out a wake-up call: Ian Bishop

London:  Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop has said that the West Indies cricket team should see its India tour collapse as a “wake-up-call”. The West Indies left India after the fourth one-day match because of a pay dispute between board and players.

 

“It must be a wake-up call because any team who was going to invite the West Indies to their shores, this will be at the back 

of their mind,” Bishop said. 

 

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, he said, “I don’t think the players understood the ramifications of such a move. The BCCI must be aware that if they bankrupt West Indies it reduces the spectacle of world cricket,” he added. 

 

Other than threatening a legal action against the WICB, the BCCI has suspended tours to West Indies, including scheduled fixtures in 

the Caribbean in February and March 2016.

 

“The revenue that the West Indies cricket board would have gained would have spilled into their grassroots cricket,” added Bishop, who played 43 Tests and 84 ODIs. 

 

Bishop added that the future of the West Indies team was under threat but that he was confident a solution would be found if administration at the WICB improved.

 

In a statement on its website, the world governing body said it was “closely monitoring the developments” which would be discussed at the ICC’s Executive Board meeting in Dubai on November 10.

 

The ICC, the statement said, is “concerned with the dispute between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and it was closely monitoring the developments arising from the recently cancelled tour of India.

 

“The ICC hopes that the matter will be resolved amicably, but clarified that, unless the matter is otherwise referred to it, it does not have the power to intervene in disputes resulting from a bilateral Future Tours Program (FTP) tour.”

 

The ICC said it would not comment further on the matter until the board meeting.