Why it should not matter if Shamar Joseph plays for West Indies or T20 Leagues more going forward?

Feb 19, 2024 Sports

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By Colin Benjamin

Kaieteur Sports – The story of Shamar Joseph continues to captivate after his amazing heroics in Australia.

Joseph now has a lucrative IPL contract with Lucknow Super Giants & a CWI retainer. He has returned to Guyana with a hero’s welcome, an Everest Cricket Club life membership and corporate partners most notably GT&T making him a brand ambassador.

One would have to refer to how Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Grenada for example, reacted to Usain Bolt, Brian Lara and Kirani James doing world dominating first-time sporting achievements, to see a recent similar national and wider Caribbean visceral reaction to athletes’ global performance.

If Joseph replicates even half of Bolt/Lara/James accomplished – he would have had a truly fulfilling sports career.

However, there is a major elephant in the room regarding upcoming expectations of Shamar Joseph that needs to be addressed.

Every West Indies fan by now would have heard or seen the emotional moment of Brian Lara’s commentary reaction as Joseph ran off the field in celebration. Also the scenes of Carl Hooper crying.

No one is under any illusions about how significant it is to former great players and the entire Caribbean cricket fraternity to beat Australia for 1st time down under since 1997. Their reaction was no doubt a manifestation of relief because they were part of the generation of players who would go to Australia from 1975-1997 and always win a match or series.

This led to Joseph at the press conference where he made the following statement:

“It was amazing to do it in front of Ian Bishop, Carl Hooper and Brian Lara,”

“It’s amazing. I can’t explain it. Having people who believe in you, that gives me a lot of confidence.”

“I will always be here to play Test cricket for the West Indies. I am not afraid to say this live. There will be times when T20 might come around and Test cricket will be there … but I will always be available to play for the West Indies no matter how much money comes towards me.”

This statement has already led to strong and what I would call unnecessary discussion about whether Joseph will or not “commit” to the West Indies.

I am not a mind reader and nor would I question the genuine intention of Shamar – but I don’t know what people might have expected Joseph to say in that highly celebratory moment sitting next to Captain Kraig Braithwaite with Lara, Hooper and Bishop in the press conference room.

As a former CWI media officer, even if he didn’t think it himself, I’m sure he was advised to consider what he would say at that moment by CWI media.

My former boss the CWI CEO Johnny Grave was also publicly trying to defend CWI after legendary Australian captain Steve Waugh called out West Indies and South Africa were devaluing test cricket, by sending weakened teams to Australia and New Zealand.

The reality is the majority of top West Indies players leading up to the Australia tour did two things. Reject CWI retainer contracts telling the board they only want to play T20I in preparation for the T20 world Cup later this year.

Secondly, when given a choice to play the test or ODIs in Australia, they choose to play in the T20 leagues in Dubai, South Africa, Bangladesh & Australia.

No player who was part of the test series in Australia is wanted on the T20 league circuit except Alzarri Joseph.

So what we are seeing due to global dynamics is that once West Indies players are exposed to the T20 league circuit – the majority go. CWI under the last two presidents Ricky Skerritt & Dr. Kishore Shallow is wisely not trying to risk past board mistakes and lawyer fees by trying to deny players No Objection Certificates (NOC).

Shamar is now about to be exposed to the T20 league world like his fellow teammates. Nobody knows and I don’t think from an objective sports standpoint it’s worth anyone’s time trying to guess what he will do. That would be baseless speculation.

The only thing one can do is look at the global calendar and see where West Indies fixtures clash with leagues & see what transpires in real time.

But here are some hard numbers to consider; Joseph’s India IPL deal is approximately US$350,000 and we don’t have any public information on his Pakistan PSL deal, CWI retainer and his Guyana business sponsorship. According to the CWI/WIPA MOU 2019-2024 which was recently updated to a 2024-2027 version, the highest-earning contract a West Indies player can get is US$300,000.

After all these years I’d hope everyone in Caribbean media and fan base realizes that West Indies & all  players outside of India, Australia & England don’t get paid well by their boards global standards.

The ICC has failed to do as FIFA does in football and create separate windows for international and league fixtures. Football players are never faced with ridiculous choices as cricketers where they have to choose between club and international duty.

If the focus in 2024 is not criticizing the ICC for being a useless governing body & national boards for being afraid of BCCI/India and its global IPL empire – then everyone is wasting time. Professional athletes don’t make the rules, they just play and try to maximize their income in the sporting landscape that the administrators create.

Therefore if Shamar lives up to his statement fantastic, but if that occurs don’t let’s put him on an unnecessary pedestal over other players who choose the leagues over West Indies duty.

Equally, if he chooses the T20s after seeing the vast monetary benefit, don’t use the nonsensical “lack of commitment” argument towards him.

(Colin Benjamin was a Cricket West Indies communications officer from 2019-2023. He has covered West Indies cricket for more than a decade for other global and Caribbean publications.)

 

 

 

 

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