Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive Johnny Grave has made serious allegations against the ICC and the dominant cricket playing nations. He said that the governing body of cricket and the big teams are trying their best so that West Indies can never become a strong team again.
Grave’s allegations came a few weeks after the West Indies won a Test after 27 years on Australian soil. Earlier, the two-time champions could not play the World Cup for the first time as they failed to qualify last year.
Speaking to Daniel Gallan on Wisden Cricket Monthly’s podcast, Grave said, ‘One thing everyone says a lot is that international cricket needs a strong West Indies. But what we feel is that world cricket is trying their best to ensure that the West Indies never become strong again.
Grave also explained exactly how the West Indies are trying to make them no longer strong. In this case, the chief executive of Cricket West Indies thinks that the dividend distribution set by the ICC for the member boards is the ‘main weapon’, ‘If the ICC wanted a strong West Indies team, then it would have thought of us. ICC is giving us more money only on paper. But our payment rates have been reduced. In the last cycle too, we used to get 7 percent, now it has come down to 5 percent.
According to a Cricinfo report in July last year, the ICC has estimated total revenue of USD 600 million in the 2024-27 cycle. India will get 23.1 million or 38.5 percent of this. England will get the second highest at 6.89 percent. West Indies’ share is 4.58 percent.
And no country’s cricket board will get even 10 percent. Bangladesh Cricket Board will get 4.46 percent. The amount of money which is 2 crore 67 lakh 40 thousand US dollars, about 290 crores in Bangladeshi currency.
Grave also highlighted the disparity between cricket and the community, noting that funding should be increased to strengthen cricket in the Caribbean region. Are we sending the best product to the field?’