Outgoing Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Johnny Grave said that he does not feel that the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) ambitious Test fund will be helpful for the format. One of the major changes that the newly elected chairman, Jay Shah, wishes to impose is the sustenance of the longer format, for which a $15 million fund has been proposed, with the approval of the ‘Big Three’ as well.
The fund aims to reinforce Test cricket in those nations that are outside the Big Three to bring a bit of balance. Meanwhile, the initiative was initially driven by Cricket Australia’s (CA) chairman Mark Baird, and got help from the England Cricket Board (ECB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as well.
“Cricket as a game needs to think much more as a league and needs to understand everyone’s business models a bit better. I think there are some positive noises from the Big 3, I think the Test fund was a good initiative. I don’t know if US $15 million a year will make any difference to anything,” Grave said on the TalkSport podcast.
“I think the idea of paying a Test fee of US $10,000 is not even window dressing. We pay our players US $10,000. So, I sort of smiled when I saw that come out in the press. I thought, ‘how is it going to change cricket and how’s that going to be saviour of Test cricket when our players are already getting paid that?’ It’s not going to make any difference to us,” he further added.
However, Graves also feels that more red-ball cricket in the calendar for the senior team might prove to be helpful than the Test fund. He added that the recurring two-match Test affairs, with only the Big Three playing dedicated Test series exceeded three matches as well. Notably, West Indies recently played a three-match away series against England. Although they faced a 0-3 whitewash, they were able to
stay competitive as well.
“What will make a difference, in my opinion, to improve West Indies Test cricket is by playing more three-match series rather than two-match series, by having dedicated Test windows where you’re not competing against franchise opportunities, or actually supporting our ‘A’ team programmes. We’ve really struggled to get ‘A’ team tours. I welcome the debate and I’m not saying that I or we at West Indies cricket have all the answers, but we welcome the debate, we welcome the slight change in mindset which is the Big 3 can’t just play against themselves, they’ve got to have a stronger opposition,” he concluded.
