Windies Trio Could Miss Aussie Tests
Sarwan - off to the IPL.
The West Indies could be without captain Chris Gayle as well as Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan for the first two Tests against Australia in May and June.
The trio will be taking part in the Indian Premier League and they will be unavailable for the matches should their franchises reach the knockout stage of the tournament.
Dr Donald Peters, the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board, confirmed that the WICB is concerned about the issue.
"We are aware that we may lose the players for the first two Tests against Australia, and I asked the selectors to be cognisant of this, and to try to put batsmen on the side that could replace Gayle, Chanderpaul, and Sarwan," Dr Peters told the Jamaican Observer.
"There is a real threat that if the players' teams reach the final, they could be gone for 44 days, so we are really worried about this.
"I am heading to Dubai for an ICC meeting, and I will talk to the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India about this, and the effect of IPL.
"Cricket administrators around the World are worried about the IPL, particularly New Zealand and West Indies because IPL takes place in the middle of when our seasons occur. But all of us stand to lose a significant amount of players."
Peters revealed the WICB will propose a window period for the IPL during the ICC meeting in Dubai.
"Then nobody gets affected, and everybody can go back to play for their national teams, but IPL, right now, is a major factor in the way it affects international cricket," he said.
"West Indies and New Zealand are two of the smallest cricket nations, and it will hurt us the most if our best players leave to play in the IPL because it's hard to replace three of your best players. But we have to find a solution.
"I have the NOCs for the players, and I have to release the players, but I am not going to not release the players because they would go anyway.
"Given the amount of money involved, it certainly destabilises the infrastructure of cricket. It's not fair to the players, and it's not fair to the national teams.
"But this is capitalism at its best, free market enterprise at its best, and we now instead of crying have to find a way to make it work, so that we win, and they win. But right now we are losing."