Hyderabad, Oct 21:
Taking a hard stand, a livid BCCI today suspended all bilateral cricket tours with West Indies and decided to initiate legal proceedings against the WICB for abruptly cancelling its tour of India last week.
The BCCI, which has incurred heavy losses due to the abandonment of the series, took these decisions “unanimously” at the Working Committee meeting which was convened to decide the future course of action.
The Board, however, decided not to punish the West Indies cricketers by allowing them to compete in the Indian Premier League, putting an end to the speculation over their participation in the cash-rich league.
“BCCI will initiate legal proceedings against West Indies Cricket Board due to the abrupt cancellation of this tour. All Bilateral tours between BCCI and WICB stand suspended,” BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel said in a brief statement after the meeting.
The BCCI also appreciated the gesture of the Sri Lankan Cricket Board for accepting the offer of playing a five-match ODI series at such a short notice.
“The Members appreciated the gesture of Sri Lankan Cricket Board for having accepted our request to play 5 ODIs starting from 2nd of November 2014, at such a short notice.
“This tour is in lieu of their scheduled tour to India next year which will be reciprocated by India touring Sri Lanka in months of July/August 2015,” the statement said.
The venues for the five ODIs will be Cuttack, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad and the detailed itinerary will be announced shortly.
The BCCI statement, however, did not specify the exact period of suspension of cricketing tours between the BCCI and the WICB. It also did not mention whether legal proceedings would also include claiming damages from the crisis-hit WICB.
It is learnt that the majority of the members were in favour of taking a hard stand against the WICB for aborting the tour after playing four ODIs.
The West Indians were scheduled to play five ODIs, one T20 and three Tests matches during the tour between October 8 and November 19. (PTI)
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