CWI plans to hold talks with exiled quartet after IPL

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief executive, Johnny Grave, plans to meet with a quartet of exiled players after the Indian Premier League (IPL), in an attempt to clear up the uncertainty surrounding their availability.

Neither Darren Bravo, older brother Dwayne, Sunil Narine nor Kieron Pollard has played for West Indies in recent times, leading to speculation over their future in the international arena.

But with West Indies facing a heavy upcoming playing schedule, Grave said it was important there was clarity for selectors regarding the four players.

“Darren Bravo has refused selection on a number of occasions now so we can’t continually go back to him every time we have a match and ask if he wants to be part of it,” the Englishman told the Express newspaper here.

Dwayne hasn’t played for quite a while in any of our sides and said he does not see his future playing international cricket. So we’ve asked him for a meeting to see if that is his firm position.”

He added: “The problem we have at the moment is that there is a huge amount of uncertainty where some players say they are not available and then suddenly they are available.”

On the tour of New Zealand last December, selectors found themselves faced with several headaches with the late withdrawals of players.

Off-spinner Narine pulled out of the Twenty20 squad followed by Pollard weeks later, with both citing “personal reasons”. Neither has played for the Caribbean side in seven months.

Dwayne Bravo, meanwhile, has been overlooked for the last 19 months while Darren has not played since ending an acrimonious eight-month standoff with CWI president Dave Cameron last July.

Controversy flared recently when Pollard, Narine and Darren Bravo declined selection for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe, indicating other commitments.

Grave said the current situation which obtained was one which needed to be addressed in the interest of the overall development of the squad, and especially with the World Cup set for England next year.

“We can’t have a situation where players pick and choose when they want to play international cricket,” he pointed out.

“In any team you need to have a group of players that are committed to playing and winning cricket matches then build that cohesion to keep same group of players together for as long as possible.

“So we will hopefully be meeting with Dwayne, Kieron, Sunil and Darren in June after the IPL to explain to them what the fixtures are between now and the World Cup in England and World T20 in Australia, who we are playing, when we are playing and if they want to be part of it or not.”

He continued: “What we can do is give them clarity in what it looks like to play for us. We know our tours all the way up to 2023. We’ve got an IPL window and a CPL window.

“Whether that is enough for them or whether they want to become T20 specialists and travel the world to play franchise cricket, that is kind of what we want to find out from them.”