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“[…] The issue with players from the West Indies and any non-Big 3 cricket nation (India, Australia and England) having to choose between international and T20 league duty is not a CWI/PCB/NZC/SLC/CSA/ACB/ problem. It is a failure of the ICC’s international calendar fixtures!
“Fifa was able to find a system for global football where club and international fixtures do not clash. The ICC has not. So why are we blaming the players? […]”
The following Letter to the Editor, which responds to commentator Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira’s unhappiness about players skipping West Indies tours for franchise cricket, was submitted to Wired868 by regional sport journalist Colin Benjamin:
Sir Reds, like any cricket legend, has earned the right to say anything on West Indies cricket because of who he is. But as 2025 dawns upon us, it’s a big flaw in the ecosystem of Caribbean cricket discussions that the ultimate straw man argument of attacking players on commitment still exists.
Certain realities need to accepted by everyone:
The issue with players from the West Indies and any non-Big 3 cricket nation (India, Australia and England) having to choose between international and T20 league duty is not a CWI/PCB/NZC/SLC/CSA/ACB/ problem. It is a failure of the ICC’s international calendar fixtures!
Fifa was able to find a system for global football where club and international fixtures do not clash. The ICC has not. So why are we blaming the players?
The myth that only the West Indies have this problem has been debunked long ago. There are countless examples globally, since the IPL started in 2008.
Just take as example the current World Test Cricket finalist, South Africa, who sent a B team to New Zealand last year and lost while West Indies won that test in Australia.
The NOC (No Objection Certificate) system—which gives cricket boards the right to determine if a player can compete overseas in a franchise competition—needs to be scrapped globally as it is the ultimate restraint of trade mechanism.
Photo: CWI Media
CWI (Cricket West Indies) under no circumstances should be allowed or encouraged to be like Afghanistan or, most notoriously, the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board), which ridiculously hauls players from T20 leagues for international duty
CWI, to its credit, already followed England and Australia in offering multi-year contracts—yet players like Sherfane Rutherford, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, and Kyle Mayers rejected them totally.
So, the issue remains that CWI can’t pay players at Big 3 levels. And it comes full circle back to my first point: the ICC must fix its global calendar!
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Colin Benjamin is a former communications officer for Cricket West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago Professional Football League club, W Connection FC.
