The captain and the rest of the side has been ignored for reasons that can be at best attributed to bossism. At worst, it is akin to cricketing suicide by a cricket board, without any other parallel in the annals of this game. Even the WSC rebels were taken back. So were the ICL ones, and that, by a board known for its absolute lack of flexibility.

But, not so the West Indies.

To further a point, which to me is becomes progressively more difficult to comprehend, they have sacked the coach of the national side, John Dyson. The official reason – which again have yet to be revealed – could be the recent losses to the Bangladeshi side. Five of them off successive games. Yet, one cannot help but wonder whether the cricket board suffered from a collective bout of amnesia which prohibited the flow of the information from the backs of their brains to the front that said that it was their decision to leave out the main guys after they had been made available, and not the coach’s. And continue with a skipper whose refrain through the series was to ‘give them more time!’

Okay, so Dyson hasn’t been to West Indies what John Wright was to India or even a Bob Simpson to Australia. But then, he also wasn’t what a Buchanan was to the Knight Riders either. He hadn’t demanded the team owner – read, the WICB – for five years of time in order to juggle around with the captains, propose more leaders than necessary, and consistently end at the bottom of the pile despite being given in to all his demands. Even considering that Dyson had made an elementary error in reading a Duckworth-Lewis sheet, did that call for his head?

So why this, and more importantly, why now? Just when the cricket board is grappling with the players’ representatives about more vital issues than the aforementioned, the least they could have some perceptible progress made in the rounds of discussion they have been having with the WIPA and try and resolve the matter further. Not float around skittishly, and sacking people for reasons beyond the fathomable.

There is a reasonable chance that there could be something more than meets the eye. I may be speculating, but there is a reasonable possibility that like the players, the board’s trust in the now former coach had turned into as strong as an earthen pot on its journey downward from the top of a building. Dyson’s line that he did not anything to say at the current moment said a lot, as did the lack of any official reason from the WICB.

Another nail in the West Indian cricket coffin.

Suneer CMDN.com, Suneer Chowdhary speaks..., West Indies John Dyson, West Indies, WICB, WIPA