Vin­ode Mam­chan

West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) di­rec­tor and pres­i­dent of Clarke Road Crick­et Club, Bal­dath Ma­habir be­lieves all rounders Dwayne Bra­vo and Ke­iron Pol­lard have done noth­ing wrong in not rep­re­sent­ing T&T at the up­com­ing re­gion­al T20 tour­na­ment. Ma­habir said the play­ers were with­in their rights to choose to play in the Aus­tralian Big Bash at the ex­pense of the Re­gion­al T20 se­ries.

"In mod­ern day sport, we al­ways have the club ver­sus coun­try is­sue but one has to un­der­stand that the play­ers must live, they need to earn a liv­ing and there is on­ly a spe­cif­ic time that they are mar­ketable as crick­eters. They need to max­imise their earn­ings and one has to keep this in mind, when we look at the sit­u­a­tion con­cern­ing Bra­vo and Pol­lard."

Bra­vo and Pol­lard will be tak­ing part in the Aus­tralian tour­na­ment at the same time T&T will be play­ing in the Re­gion­al T20 se­ries. By not play­ing for their coun­try, they ef­fec­tive­ly rule them­selves out of play­ing for the West In­dies in T20 in­ter­na­tion­als for the next year. How­ev­er, Ma­habir added that there are cer­tain reg­u­la­tions set out by the board and the play­ers would have to abide by this. "The West In­dies Crick­et Board has cer­tain se­lec­tion cri­te­ria in place and the guys would have to re­spect that and move ac­cord­ing­ly."

The La Ro­maine res­i­dent was quick to add that T&T played with both Bra­vo and Pol­lard and failed to win the 2010 T20 com­pe­ti­tion. "Those guys, al­though be­ing the top men in the team, were with us for the 2010 ver­sion and we did not win. Guyana with­out a Pol­lard or Bra­vo went on to win the tour­na­ment. "This sit­u­a­tion now gives oth­er play­ers a chance to step up and come in­to their own. This is an ide­al sit­u­a­tion for a young­ster to come for­ward and stake a claim."