I wouldn't advise my kids to take up cricket professionally in West Indies: Michael Holding

Blaming the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for the players’ decision to pull out midway from the India tour, pace bowling legend Michael Holding has said that he wouldn’t advise his kids to take up cricket professionally looking at the way the game is being governed in the country.

Holding, in his column for Wisden India, wrote: “If I’m a parent of a kid who wants to play cricket, I would encourage him in every way but only to play recreationally. I would tell him to not even think about playing for West Indies until the way the board administrates the game changes. If he wanted to play sport professionally, I would tell him to try another sport.”

WICB turns the tables on WIPA

Holding also revealed that the WICB – in reducing the salaries of the players – settled their old scores with the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) who had earlier deceived the board into paying more for the cricketers.

Terming it as a tit for tat move, he wrote: “In the years gone by, that $US 35,000 per match-day came about because a former representative of WIPA conned a former Chief Executive Officer of the WICB and got an e-mail confirming that the players were getting that payment, which obviously the WICB didn’t want.”

“Somehow, the CEO misunderstood what was being asked for and agreed to it. When the final negotiations took place, the former WIPA rep turned up with the e-mail from the CEO confirming the payment, and refused to budge. He demanded that the WICB honour the word of their CEO, which they naturally had to. It would seem that the tables are now being turned.”