'And we are hosting the World Cup'
Sportscope - Our Opinion
Stabroek News
January 11, 2007
There is a popular song that starts out like this…"This is how we do it.'
The International Cricket Council's (ICC) 2007 World Cup cricket competition is a mere 60 days away and yet the way certain issues are handled still has not changed.
The West Indies team to India has apparently been selected but not yet released, although a few media houses have reported on the selection of some of the players while another went so far as to release an unofficial team.
It seems as if this is still how we do it in the Caribbean World Cup or no World Cup.
Informed sources told Stabroek Sport that the reason the names of the players had not been released, was the usual dispute with the West Indies Players Association.
The issue it seems is the usual one of fees and players' rights to sponsorship deals and contracts.
The West Indies will play India on January 21 at Nagpur in the first of four One Day Internationals less than two weeks away. The tour was not part of the ICC Future Tours programme but was negotiated after the Board of Control, for Cricket in India (BCCI) requested a visit by Brian Lara's maroon-clad West Indians.
According to a source close to the WICB, negotiations were continuing and the team was expected to be named soon.
In the meantime the Indians, blissfully unaware of the latest developments, are going ahead with plans for the staging of the one-dayers.
Sponsors Pepsi have decided to allocate some US$3.5 for the staging of eight matches, four against the West Indies and four against Sri Lanka shortly afterwards.
Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa and even Yuvraj Singh are hoping to play against the West Indies so as to boost selection for the World Cup.
And, just when it seems that the West Indies should be moving with utmost speed in terms of trying to find the right combinations for the World Cup just months away, the opposite is happening.
It is unfortunate that a region which will host the World Cup in a short while cannot run things smoothly.
But then again, as the song says "This is how we do it."