As a concerned former player it's only right to offer a solution - Bermuda Cricket Board listen to your players concerns and players listen to the Boards concerns only then we can start to see real improvement from both parties.
In the past few years, the West Indies players have grappled with a series of issues. I think first you have to look at why both players are at odds with their respective boards. Obviously financial disagreements play a huge role in the disparity between the two parties. Having spoken to West Indies and Bermudian cricketers I get the feeling both feel underappreciated and the respect level is out the window. For this discussion I will focus on the Bermudian player. We all know the story on how Bermuda qualified for the World Cup (what a great achievement by that group) however this is where the real problems begin in my opinion.
Bermuda was simply not ready for this level of achievement. The Bermuda Cricket Board, the players and the country were way out of their depth once this happen. In other countries if this would have happened the PLAYERS would have been taking care of (house, land, and a substantial amount of money). Not in Bermuda (what the players received for qualifying $2000 and motorcade)? Unreal isn't it?
While the Bermuda Cricket Board used this qualifying leverage to bolster their staff, bigger office spaces, new cars, and INCREASED WAGES to name a few.
Now a lot was expected of this team after qualifying which now we know just didn't happen. Which lead to the distance between all both parties involved, the Board blamed the players and the players blamed the board. No one really accepted that we were simply out of our depth.
The Board spend money recklessly and the team continued to perform badly. No one was held accountable however I feel the players took all the blame from the international media, local media, fans and the board itself.
Now I'm not saying the players done everything right but when the players didn't have support from the people who were sitting in plush positions only created by the players performance in Ireland only then divide continue to get greater. You even had the president come out after the World Cup campaign and state that the players need to take their game more seriously and blah blah before he boarded his first class flight after seeing Bermuda play internationally for the first time outside of Bermuda (not to mention all-expenses paid flight courtesy of the Bermuda Cricket team).
He had instantly become a know it all after this experience. Now there more stories that could be discussed similar this but can you see how the divide continued to get worst?
Over the next few years Bermuda continued to drop in ICC rankings plainly due to Bermuda having a poor infrastructure that was never developed properly to sustain/increase the level of performance needed to complete internationally.
Board Executives where absolutely poor in this regard, I'm sure Gus Logie made many recommendations to improve this but I know the deadwood executives couldn't see his vision and they were very short sighted.
Now forward to 2016. International and Domestic Cricket is horrendous to say the least but again you still have Board Executives draining the little resources the board may still have left over.
How is it that the board runs an annual deficit of over $200,000? How is it you have a full time CEO making in excess off $300,000 and then can't feed your international teams properly when they go on tour?
To put it plainly the Bermuda Cricket Board will go broke and the players will be blamed again and that is why the players and the board will continue to be divided to say the least.
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