Quote:There is currently some anger directed towards a few senior players in the West Indies who appear to place more emphasis on playing in the various Twenty20 competitions that have popped up over the world than in representing the region. This is a somewhat understandable state of affairs since being a T20 gun-for-hire is a lucrative endeavor. We all want to see the best players playing at the highest levels. But deciding when and what format to play is the player’s decision to make – not ours.
The authorities may have eligibility rules that have to be complied with to gain selection, but it is the players who ultimately decide what is best for their himself and their family. That is always the case, whether we’re talking about players choosing the IPL over representing their country or players choosing to go the Kolpak route – like South Africans have done lately – thereby making them ineligible for national representation.
We all concur that those who get to play sport for a living are very fortunate. If only we were good enough to play the games we loved as children for good money, right? Professional athletes are rightly seen as being perched on a place of high privilege. And yet, they are men and women like the rest of us, with their own ideas of how they want to pursue their lives and careers. Like us they are beset by uncertainty and dither over decisions. That is their struggle as much as it is ours. We ought to respect that.
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