Sri Lanka replace WI to play five ODIs against India

Sri Lanka has agreed to play a five-match ODI series with India between November 1st and 15th, replacing West Indies who have called off their tour of India over a pay dispute with the West Indies board, SLC said.

West Indies is currently playing the fourth ODI in Dharamshala but this will be the last match they will play. The team was scheduled to play five ODIs, one T20 International and three Tests.

Given that the West Indies tour is the only home tour in 2014 for India, the BCCI was looking for an alternative and Sri Lanka Cricket has agreed to step in and play five ODIs in November.

“In principle we have agreed to the tour,” SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said.

According to him, the BCCI had wanted to play a T20 International as well, but SLC agreed only to the one-dayers. Sri Lanka is looking at the series as additional preparation for the World Cup, which is one reason they agreed to the tour.

“It is good for both the teams,” Ranatunga said.

“The BCCI is shocked and extremely disappointed at the decision taken by the WICB, the board said in a statment.

“The WICB’s inability to resolve internal issues with its players and allowing the same to affect an ongoing bilateral series does not reflect well on any of those involved. The withdrawal gives little thought to the future of the game, the players and the long standing relations between the BCCI and the WICB.

“The BCCI wishes to inform all its stakeholders, especially ardent fans of the Indian cricket team, that this is a unilateral decision taken by the WICB and its players, in spite of several appeals to the WICB to honour its commitment and complete the series.

“The BCCI will pursue all options available to protect its rights, whilst seeking appropriate action from the ICC to ensure that its interests and those of the game at large will not suffer any damage due to such acts of indiscretion.”

The West Indies team very nearly didn’t take the field for today’s match and it took a last minute intervention by HPCA president Anurag Thakur to convince them to play. Thakur persuaded West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo that a no-show will result in an embarrassment for the organisers and to add to it, the disappointment of the fans, who came to watch a rare international game from nearby as well as far-off places.

The players apparently relented after they were told that ‘you are on your own if you decide against playing the match and HPCA is no more your host’.

“My team is standing behind me, Dwayne Bravo said at the toss today. “It has been a tough tour for us. We don’t want cricket to suffer and we don’t want our fans to suffer. It’s time to make a decision though. (I) must give credit to my boys for all the fight they’ve put up.”

The cause of the dispute is the new memorandum of understanding signed between the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board. According to Bravo, the players had been kept in the dark about the MoU by WIPA president and CEO Wavell Hinds and it was signed without their consent.

The MoU apparently required some players to accept a pay cut of as much as 75 percent.

In a letter, Bravo asked Hinds to step down as WIPA president and that if he did not co-operate, the tour could be in danger. Hinds refused to do so and insisted he had done nothing wrong. The West Indies board declined to intervene in the matter, saying only that WIPA was the official representative of the players and it would abide by the MoU the two had signed.

With inputs from PTI