With four of eight games in India’s ongoing tour of the Caribbean scheduled in Trindad and Tobago, fast bowling legend Andy Roberts is unhappy with the advantage the visitors have been handed by Cricket West Indies (CWI) in terms of crowd support at the venues. T&T is known for its significant Indian diaspora with all three ODIs and one T20I scheduled there.
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India completed a 3-0 clean sweep on Wednesday with even their captain Shikhar Dhawan thanking for a huge support his players enjoyed during the three matches – all of them held at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Roberts says that the practice of scheduling matches specifically in Trinidad isn’t new. However, the scenario has changed a lot since then as those were ‘non-television’ days with people thronging the venues to watch live matches.
“That is the way it has been. When we were playing, if we had five Test matches against India, two would be in Trinidad. It was because more people would come to watch those games. Those were the non-television days and more crowds in the ground had meant more revenue. It is no longer that way now, the revenue comes from the television but still the board plays more India games in Trinidad or Guyana," Roberts told Cricbuzz.
“There is no reason to do that now," he added.
CWI president Ricky Skerritt though said the Roberts’ can speak his mind but views have nothing to do with the cricket board. “Sir Andy Roberts is entitled to his opinion, of any kind, about anything to do with West Indies cricket," Skerritt was quoted as saying.
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The two teams will now lock horns in a five-match T20I series starting Friday.
The first T20I will be played at the Brian Lara Stadium (Trinidad) while the next two will be held at the Warner Park (St Kitts).
The series then will move to Florida (USA) where the remaining two games will be played.
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