Gayle, Pollard, Bravo need WICB clearance to play in T20 Big Bash: CA chief
By ANITuesday, October 5, 2010
SYDNEY - Cricket Australia acting Chief Executive Michael Brown has said that West Indies players Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo can’t participate in the Twenty20 Big Bash without the permission of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
All three players have rejected contracts from the WICB, seemingly because of a desire to have greater freedom to play in various countries’ domestic Twenty20 competitions, including the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Gayle and Pollard are contracted to Western Australia and South Australia respectively, while Bravo is believed to be keen to re-sign with Victoria.
“They’ve got to get approval to play in our competition. It’s Cricket Australia’s competition and we would work all those things out. I would not see a situation where a player would be putting his position with his [home] board at risk without consent,” The Age quoted Brown, as saying.
“We will work through that and I will talk to the West Indies if needed. One of the things we need to understand is that players don’t come without their home-board approval.”
“Regardless of what we do in cricket [matches], we are very strong allies and supporters of West Indian cricket. They have the ultimate right whether they approve their players going, so if any of those players can come it’ll float back to them,” he added.
Brown further expressed hope that the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) would resolve the issues.
“We don’t get involved in their politics. I’ve heard that they’ve had some issues, but I’m sure they’ll work them out,” he added. (ANI)
