West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo is promising the South African people that a full-strength West Indies team will tour their country in December. The all-rounder who was at the helm of the team that aborted the tour of India recently was quoted on Sport24 as saying: “It’s all sorted out and the West Indies are going to be back playing again,” Bravo said, at Kingsmead, where he was officially welcomed as the Dolphins’ overseas player for the domestic T20 competition.
The Caribbean outfit will play three Tests, three T20 Internationals and five ODIs around the country over the festive period. Doubts over the tour surfaced after the West Indian team cut short its tour of India last month over a pay dispute. Bravo left for South Africa on Saturday after meeting with officials of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), as well as regional prime ministers Dr Ralph Gonzalves and Dr Keith Mitchell. At the end of that Hyatt meeting, the T&T Guardian was told that a deal was brokered and that the board was going to allow the MoU to be re-negotiated, as well as putting in place a task force to deal with the issues at hand concerning the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Bravo said yesterday: “As far as I know, the best West Indies team will tour South Africa. Everyone is available as far as I know and we look forward to trying to give the South African boys a good run. It’s always going to be tough, but it’s good that all the matters are resolved now.” Yesterday, the WICB directors, led by president Dave Cameron, held a teleconference and all matters concerning the aborted tour were discussed. Cameron got an opportunity to informed all the directors about the matters that was discussed on Friday night at Hyatt. During the teleconference, he also informed his directors that Caricom will play a part in sorting out the issues with the BCCI, who slapped the regional cricket body with a hefty US$41.97m bill earlier this week. Gonzalves will be the man making the representation at Caricom and the directors will be kept up to date with this development.
