BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC): Fast-bowling legend Sir Andy Roberts has issues with the decision by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to allow the tour of England to go ahead amid the COVID-19 pandemic without ensuring there was a financial benefit to be derived from the three-Test series.
The 69-year-old said while he did not have a problem with the series in principle, he did not believe the Windies should have been used as “guinea pigs” for the historic “biosecure” series without financial reward, especially since the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) stood to save £380 million (over J$67 billion) by convincing teams to honor commitments during the summer.
“What I have a problem with is that there are talks about West Indies are not going to benefit from this tour financially, which I think would be a mistake, because the chances we’re going to take, I don’t think many more countries are willing to take that chance.
The Windies were scheduled to tour England last month, but the three-Test series was postponed as the United Kingdom dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic.
To save their summer schedule, and hundreds of millions of dollars in television revenue, the ECB proposed staging the series in a biosecure environment.
