Social media storm hits Windies squad

Lingering tension between the West Indies Cricket Board and the Caribbean's star cricketers shows no sign of easing after high-profile players took to social media to publicly query the latest squad selections.

This week the West Indies named a squad of players to contest next month's one-day international tri-series against Australia and South Africa, which will be the first to be played entirely as a day-night series.

The 14-man squad, which has been named for the first four matches of the series only, will be captained by Jason Holder and also includes World T20 heroes Carlos Brathwaite and Marlon Samuels.

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However, big name players such as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell are all absent due to a strict selection policy imposed by the WICB, much to the frustration of coach Phil Simmons. 

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The WICB's current policy prevents players who don't make themselves available for domestic competitions from being eligible for international selection, which has left the Windies' Test and ODI sides shorn of some of their best talent in recent years.

Bravo, Sammy and Gayle all took to Twitter, congratulating Pollard and Narine, but left little doubt about their lingering animosity for the WICB.

Sammy did add he was "really happy" for Pollard, and the big-hitting Trinidadian allrounder got involved as he responded to tweets from Sammy and Gayle. 

Of course, Pollard injured his knee playing in South Africa's domestic T20 tournament and was ruled out of last summer's KFC Big Bash League. The Adelaide Strikers, however, are eager to welcome him back for BBL|06 this year.

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Pollard has not played for the Windies since last November and is line to play his first ODI since October 2014.

Narine has also not played for the West Indies since last November when he was reported and subsequently banned by the International Cricket Council for an illegal bowling action.

But after undergoing testing at an ICC-accredited facility in Chennai, Narine was cleared last month in time to return to action for Kolkata in the Indian Premier League, where he's played an important role in the Knight Riders' push for a finals berth.

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The latest episode comes after Sammy delivered an emotional tribute to his players in the wake of the World T20 triumph in India, and took a swipe at the WICB.

"We started this journey, we all know we had people ... wondering whether we would play this tournament," Sammy said.

"We had a lot of issues, we felt disrespected by our board, Mark Nicholas described our team as a team with no brains. All these things before the tournament just brought this team together.

"I really want to thank these 15 men, the ability to just put all those adversities aside and to come out and play this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans, it's just tremendous."

Three days later, Bravo was even more scathing as he also accused the Board's president, Dave Cameron, of being an "immature", "small-minded" and "arrogant" person.

"A lot of people come down on the players - they questioned our commitment, they questioned whether we were really committed to West Indies cricket or is it just the money," Bravo, who along with his teammates has been involved in a long-running pay dispute with the WICB, told Trinidad & Tobago television network CNC3.

"A lot of people don't understand the things we go through as players dealing with our board. It is the most unprofessional board in the world to me. Sammy spoke from his heart. There is nothing wrong with Sammy's speech and I support Darren Sammy 100 percent.

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"The entire team supports him and it's a matter of us as players feeling hurt and the time has come where we can't take it anymore and someone needs to put a stop to it because the cricket is being run by people who do not have West Indies cricket's interest at heart."

Sammy's speech also cited the involvement of CARICOM – the organisation of Caribbean national governments that along with cricket and the University of the West Indies are the only institutions under which the region's sovereign countries unite under a single banner – and it carried particular significance.

Late last year, an independent panel established jointly by CARICOM and the WICB – headed by Principal of the University of the West Indies in Barbados Dr Eudine Barriteau and including senior members of the judicial and business communities along with former West Indies vice-captain Deryck Murray – reportedly recommended the Board "should be immediately dissolved".

A finding that, as was the case with previous independent reviews of the WICB’s governance and structure conducted in 2007 and 2012, has thus far been rejected by the Board.

Which subsequently led to a breakdown in the relationship between the region's cricket authorities and its political leaders at CARICOM.

In a media statement issued hours after Sammy's post-match comments, the WICB rebuked their captain for making "inappropriate" remarks and indicated they would be seeking further explanation as to the rationale behind them.

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"The (WICB) President would like to however apologise for what could be deemed inappropriate, comments made by the West Indies' male captain, Darren Sammy in a post-match interview and would like to apologise on behalf of the WICB, to the millions of fans who witnessed," the statement said.

"The President has pledged to enquire the reason and will have the matter addressed."

While the timing and appropriateness of Sammy's unequivocally political observations atop a day of unabashed triumph for West Indies cricket can be debated, it laid bare the suspicions and divisions that remain at odds with the carefree, cavalier approach that lifted the junior, women's and men's teams to international success in the space of a few weeks.

In this light, the exclusion of Sammy, Gayle, Bravo and Russell was to be expected.

Nor are any of them expected to figure in the Windies' subsequent home Test series against India, when 24-year-old Jason Holder will resume the helm of a young team that currently sits eighth on the 10-nation Test rankings ladder.

However, the WICB has, in the wake of the WT20 success, foreshadowed its plan to meet with all players later in the year because they "want to see how we can find common ground in ensuring that the best players in the region are available for selection for West Indies teams".

WEST INDIES TRI-SERIES SQUAD

Jason Holder (c), Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Shannon Gabriel, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor