BCCI: Tall claims fall short
When it comes to world cricket the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is supposed to be the most powerful. Yet, when it came to taking a stand and helping resolve the ongoing payment dispute between the West Indies players and its board - thereby ensuring that the ongoing bilateral series isn't affected - they fell short.
This after BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel had boasted prior to the first ODI in Kochi that the West Indies players wouldn't under any circumstance end the series abruptly and that they were "good boys". And now, the big boys of world cricket are waiting for the ICC to take appropriate action against the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for the West Indies players' decision to return home after the fourth ODI in Dharamsala - cancelling the remaining tour.
Maybe Patel was of the opinion that the West Indies players would fear losing out on lucrative Indian Premier League contracts if they decided to end the series against India. After all, skipper Dwayne Bravo and opener Dwayne Smith play for Chennai Super Kings and star all-rounder Kieron Pollard plays for Mumbai Indians.
More than BCCI's inability to ensure that the bilateral series went ahead unaffected, what is more shocking is their lack of awareness about the whole episode. Even though the West Indies management had informed the WICB on Friday morning itself, the BCCI was busy sending media accreditation forms for the match to be held between the Indian Board President's XI and the West Indies in Kanpur from October 25.
It was only on Friday afternoon that they woke up and sent a press release saying that they were shocked and surprised by the sudden turn of events. This came that too after news had already broken that the West Indies team was heading home from Dharamsala.
This incident once again brings to surface the issue of how overconfident the top BCCI officials behave. They feel that with the change in the financial policies in the ICC - making them the highest earners - they are the ultimate authority and challenging them is something not any board or its players would dare to do.
But what the BCCI seems to have forgotten is that the West Indies outfit has done this before as well and the players seem to have a mind of their own and have little or no respect for such bilateral commitments and long standing relations between boards involved.
To say that the BCCI alone is to be blamed for not being able to resolve an issue over payments would be wrong. Even the WICB should have handled matters better. An internal matter should not have escalated to this level in the first place. But what has been done can't be undone.
Yes, the Indian board has options galore and they have already managed to convince Sri Lanka to play five ODIs - starting November 1. But the flak and shame can't be ignored and rather than making big claims and then failing to deliver, the BCCI should ensure that in the future they walk the talk, much like their star batsman Virat Kohli.