Pollard, unhappy with Cameron’s leadership, says: Proper dialogue needed for Windies’ improvement

Embattled West Indies cricketer Kieron Pollard said his heart is still with West Indies cricket and says serious discussion needs to take place to help solve the fiasco currently facing regional cricket.

Since the West Indies walked off their tour of India in 2014, over a salary dispute, there has been an ongoing battle between the players and Cricket West Indies (CWI).

The battle has continued over the past few days after Pollard, Sunil Narine , Darren Bravo and Andre Russell decided to accept contracts to play in the Pakistan Super League. As a result, the quartet will not feature for West Indies in the World Cup qualifiers which takes place simultaneously. CWI president Dave Cameron said Narine, Pollard and Bravo may not play for West Indies after not accepting offer to play for West Indies in the World Cup qualifiers.

Some people have been questioning the commitment of the players to West Indies cricket. Pollard, speaking on the SportsMax zone yesterday, said he still wants to play for West Indies.

“My heart is still in maroon colours, I have not been dropped from the T20 team as yet. I still represent West Indies in that format.”

Pollard said he is not happy with how Cameron is running CWI, saying he wants to get rid of all the players and not seek proper dialogue. “Every time these things come about there is one particular individual (Cameron) just goes ahead and always wants to end people’s career just like that. He just wants to get rid of everybody...this is not how you run an organisation,” Pollard said.

Pollard, asked if CWI is disbanded would West Indies cricket will recover, said it is not a guarantee the situation would improve but said dialogue needs to happen. “We need discussions, we need to sit around a table. We have done that but you need to be truthful and you need to be honest. You need to accept where you have gone wrong as a board, as a player, as a Caribbean entity we need to accept where we have gone wrong. We have to accept that we are 20 years behind where we are supposed to be and if we identify those things firstly then we can move forward. So disbanding and getting rid of everybody, I don’t think is going to be the answer for it.”