By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies fast bowler Sir Andy Roberts has renewed calls for the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Professional Cricket League (PCL) to be scrapped or revamped in a way that benefits players beyond those selected by the participating franchises.
Sir Andy, whose views on the PCL are well known, said that in its current format, only those cricketers selected on a yearly basis benefit from the initiative.
“Everybody have to fight to earn a living and not just 15 people, and when you spend all of your resources into 90 cricketers, then what is left for the other 2,000 cricketers around the Caribbean? They are left on their own and hence, that is why we are not seeing much players coming forward,” he said.
The once feared fast bowler suggested that the funds currently being spent on the league could be filtered into the various boards to fund development programmes, as more players stand to benefit this way.
“The associations are going to tell you they don’t have money to buy balls, and they don’t have money to prepare pitches for you to practice. Which clubs in Antigua have monies that you can say they are going to have a 20-man squad to train? We must have more focused people who are willing to go and make sacrifice so that they can become better cricketers. People may feel because I say to scrap it, and maybe scrap it may not be the right term, but I have to say something because it is not working out,” Sir Andy said.
CWI, on Thursday, hosted the virtual Professional Cricketers Draft for the 2021-2022 season.