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It's high time that the International Cricket Council (ICC) put its foot down and act more sternly with cricket boards that send mediocre teams for international tournaments.
I am referring to the Champions Trophy tournament that is now in progress in South Africa in which the world's eight top one-day teams are taking part.
This tournament, played every two years, is second in importance to the World Cup and it is only fair to the hosts and the spectators as well as the sponsors that all the eight boards send their best players for the event.
That West Indies have sent a second string team because of the non-availability of the senior players because of a contract dispute should not affect the tournament as such. This was the same team that lost to Bangladesh in the Test and one-day series at home.
The ICC could have done two things: One, try and help the West Indies board resolve the dispute in the contracts row, or, invite the ninth-ranked team for the tournament - in this case Bangladesh - at the expense of the West Indies.
It may be put forward that the West Indies is seeded above Bangladesh but that was when they had all their stars in their ranks.
Earlier, there was the instance of Zimbabwe whose Test status was suspended due to the political instability in the country and many of the top-ranked teams refused to play them in one-dayers because they felt that the quality of the players was much below standard.
I am actually saddened by the fall in standard of West Indies cricket from the heydays of Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards and players of their ilk. They seemed to be just coming out of the abyss with the likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul leading the way when this dispute crops up.
It is imperative that this dispute should be solved with the ICC taking the initiative of calling the West Indies board and cricketers together and try to hammer out a solution as soon as possible for the betterment of West Indies cricket and also their ardent fans.
One has to remember that most of their present-day best players are in their 30s and if the stalemate prolongs then the game could die a slow death in a region which is famed for its stroke players as well as fast bowlers.
