Sunil Gavaskar came up with a few suggestions to improve the situation for West Indies cricket. It has been a torrid couple of months for the West Indies cricket team as they failed to qualify for the ICC World Cup 2023 and were comprehensively defeated by India in the first match of the ongoing two-game Test series.
The story is nothing new as the Windies have severely struggled for form in the recent past and participation in franchise-based cricket leagues has become the preferred choice of the prominent West Indies cricketers. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar recalled his experienced in the Caribbean as he came up with a few suggestions to improve the situation. “It is where I went for my first tour and I know a lot of people there. I know the kind of legacy those wonderful cricketers left behind. There’s a pretty laid-back temperament which is fantastic but when it comes to playing sometimes a laid-back temperament might not get you much results. To Clive Lloyds, Malcolm Marshalls, Viv Richards, Andy Roberts, Michael Holdings, Garners, the wonderful era for West Indies Test cricket, every Test match that they played, was extra income,” he said. Gavaskar believes that the salary of the cricketers should be linked with their performance and even suggested that the lack of a central contract can be a good way to handle the current situation. “Today the West Indian players, whether it is Test player or T20 player, all the players all over the world are guaranteed by their central contracts, a hundred thousand dollars or whatever. But if you know the West Indian temperament and you have that much in the bank before you score a run or take a wicket, I am not too sure about a lot of them if it actually matters whether they score runs or not. Because the money is in the bank,” Gavaskar explained at the event.“My suggestion would be to increase the Test match fees but don’t give them central contracts. You are paid for your performance. Then probably they will have a different attitude”.