Former West Indies allrounder Dwayne Bravo, who announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket in October, opened up on the 2014 India tour debacle, in an exclusive interview to i955fm. On October 17, 2014, in the middle of the 4th ODI between India and West Indies in Dharamsala, the West Indies Cricket Board (now Cricket West Indies) decided to call off the remainder of the tour.
Bravo, in the interview, talked about the events that transpired before the announcement. “Collectively as a team, we decided what to do. I listened to every single player. Apart from one player, everyone signed on a piece of paper, that they were all in support of leaving the tour. But we did not just decide to walk away from the tour. There were different times when we tried to reach out to both our WIPA president [Wavell Hinds] and the cricket president [Dave Cameron, Cricket West Indies president]. So we threatened [to pull out] from the first game, but we played. We threatened for the second game, but we played. The [fourth] game we went out (the whole team accompanied Bravo to the toss), so it was just a message and a signal, trying to let them know that we are not happy with whatever is going on,” the 35-year-old said.
The allrounder, who plays for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL, further recalled how a message at 3 am in the morning from the then BCCI chairman N Srinivasan prompted him to ask the players to play the first ODI.
“I remember fully well before we said we weren’t going to play the first game, 3 am in the morning, I get a message from the BCCI boss, the old one, Mr [N] Srinivasan, that “please take the field.” I listened to him – and woke up at 6 am to tell the team that we have to play. And everyone was against playing. Everyone thought that I panicked and chickened out and all these things,” he said.
“But I was more concerned about the players’ future more than anything else, because it was a serious decision to not play and walk away from the tour. All of us could have been banned for life. So by taking the opportunity and listening to the bosses of BCCI, that was one way to ensure that we are protected,” he added.
Bravo further added that the members of the WIPA did not travel to India to discuss the issue with the players. “We played the first game, we beat India, then we traveled to Delhi. At that time the president [Cameron] was in Dubai, which is few hours away from Delhi. He said he is still not going to come and meet us,” he said. “They [Hinds and Cameron] were scheduled to come, I think, two weeks after the ODI series, by when most of us would have left. Only the Test team would be there. We play the second game, we lose, then the third game rained out, so we stayed in Delhi for an extra week. Again the president [Cameron] refused to come. Then we went to Dharamsala, up in the hills, that’s where we play the last game,” he added.
