BRIDGETOWN: The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), reeling from the fallout from the team’s withdrawal from the tour of India, is facing fresh pressure from its worried commercial and broadcast partners.

West Indies cricket was plunged into a major crisis after the tourists abandoned their series in India over a protracted payment dispute between the players and their board.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the most powerful body in the sport, responded by suspending all future tours with the Caribbean team and beginning legal action against the WICB.

Oliver McIntosh chief executive officer of Digicel Sportsmax, the pan-Caribbean sports television network, says he is worried about the forthcoming West Indies tour of South Africa.

“We are due to broadcast West Indies tour of South Africa in December and January. We have invested a lot of money in the rights and in the talent. We have started marketing it, we have sponsors on board and if that doesn’t happen, you totally retract, you have to go back to sponsors and give back money,” he said in an interview. “We are worried. It does impact our audience. If West Indies cricket is no longer on, that is a big blow for us, a big blow.”

While in the past governments in the Caribbean have intervened in the various crises that have afflicted West Indies, McIntosh says that it is sponsors and other backers who need to start pushing the WICB to make major changes.

“What has to happen in this case is that the private interests have to get involved and say, ‘Look, if I have a stake here, if you want me to stay involved and want me to continue to help funding the cricket, this is how it has to go’,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014