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Cricket West Indies CEO Jonny Grave has hit out against the International Cricket Council and top cricketing nations. In a passionate rant, Graves has alleged that world cricket is doing everything in its power to make sure that West Indies are never strong again.

Grave’s comments come right after West Indies’ tour of Australia in January-February 2024. In the Test series, the underdog West Indies put up a sensational performance, winning their first Test match in 27 years on Australian soil. Windies drew the Test series 1-1, courtesy of pacer Shamar Joseph, who was on his maiden tour.

“I think everyone is a bit sick of the phrase – world cricket needs a strong West Indies – when we definitely feel that world cricket is doing everything they can at almost every level to make sure that West Indies Cricket are never strong again,” West Indies CEO Jonny Grave told Daniel Gallan in a podcast.

ICC Model Broken: CWI CEO

Grave added that ICC’s revenue share model was wrong, and they had added to West Indies’ earnings only on paper. Grave alleged that their revenue percentage had dropped from 7% to 5% under the current model.

“I think that’s the borne of the frustration of that as Ian Bishop says in his own words that this is a patronising tone. If you really want a strong West Indies Cricket, it would actually not be that hard to do a bit more. ICC are giving us more money in headlines but our percentage of revenue has gone down from 7% to 5%, which we struggle to understand,” Grave added.

“If we all just are looking after ourselves then are we really acting as a community? Are we putting the best product on the field?” concluded the CWI CEO.

AUS vs WI: Test Series

It was an emotional Test series for West Indies having been counted as underdogs. In fact former cricketer Rodney Hogg had called the side pathetic and hopeless coming into the series. Windies captain Kraig Brathwaite hit out against the former player after winning the final Test match at Gabba.

“I must say we had two words that inspired us in this Test match. Mr. Rodney Hogg said that we were ‘pathetic and hopeless’. That was our inspiration. We wanted to show the world we’re not pathetic. And I must ask him ask him, are these muscles big enough for him [Shows his biceps],” said Braithwaite.

“We won a Test match in Australia. It does a lot for West Indies cricket. It means a lot. It’s been a number of years since we’ve won a Test match here. But my message to the group is that this is the beginning. It’s amazing, we enjoy this, but this has to continue. I’m extremely proud,” Braithwaite added.

CWI Made No Money: CEO

Jonny Grave had hit out against the ICC earlier as well. Grave had claimed that West Indies made no money out of the men’s and women’s tour of Australia series as the better chunk of the revenue had gone to the Australian counterpart.

“The revenue-share model is completely broken,” Grave had said in January. “If we really want to operate as a cricketing community we are only as strong as the weakest team, and we’ve got to change the mindset of bilateral cricket.”

“CWI has spent over 2 million dollars sending teams to Australia in the last four months and whilst CA have received all the economic benefits from those series, we’ve seen zero dollars back. Is that really fair, reasonable and sustainable?”

“We’ve got a Test team there, an ODI team and a T20I team, which will cost us another million-plus dollars in terms of match fees and airfares. We spend more on airfares than anyone else in the world.” Grave said. “In percentage terms we will spend more than anyone on red-ball cricket so I would argue against any narrative that the West Indies aren’t interested in Test cricket.”

Published By:

Kingshuk Kusari

Published On:

Mar 2, 2024

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