Sanasie says not opposing players’ participation in T20 leagues

With a whirlwind of T20 and T10 Leagues going around the world, Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Secretary Anand Sanasie has made some suggestions with regards to the availability, or lack thereof, of Regional players.
During his sit down with media operatives on Monday last in the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Boardroom, Sanasie was questioned about his position on the matter of players making themselves available for lucrative T20 and T10 Leagues, forsaking the West Indies team in the process.

“I don’t see a problem with players going around the world plying your trade. However, we have to do it in an organized way we must decide,” Sanasie declared.
Making a point that Cricket West Indies and territorial boards benefit financially from players releases for T20 leagues, he explained that it is important for players to earn.
“Players would be expected to go and ply their trade and earn money. However, I would have an issue with a player on a full contract not being available, so what I would attempt to do is work with the players to ensure that the core players are available to you.
“Obviously, you have to give them the time to go make some extra money wherever and so, because we cannot pay players the kind of money they get on the T20 circuit,” he shared.
“You see, Cricket West Indies earns money from some of the T20 leagues through the player release programme. You can’t want to collect on this side and not release on that side. Also, you have to understand that territorial boards and clubs earn from those releases.”
As such, the GCB Secretary suggested that it would be beneficial to have a set of core players that are ready to play, even during those tournaments.
“If you take the CPL window out, and you take the IPL window out, we’re talking about almost five months of your cricket calendar being taken out. So, you have the international, you have the other T20 leagues around the world and so on, when you actually sit and look at what will happen.
“The thought that is going through my head is that we can actually have a full-time team playing while either the IPL or anything else is going on,” Sanasie opined.
Additionally, the CWI presidential candidate is of the belief that such tournaments are capable of preparing players for the longer format of the game.
Using Team India as example,
he explained the notion by stating, “I think while we tend to think or believe that a long version player is who you bring out first and then you evolve a few T20 players, if we use the India example, T20 is a big thing in India, the IPL has grown to probably one of the biggest sport events in the world. And you look at who’s playing in the Indian team. Now, the core is who has come out of that T20 background.”
Sanasie concluded, “So it has to be a cohesive thing, but we must also have a core set of players always available for West Indies duty, right; who are fit, who stats are up there and so on, and those things have to be clear cut with the players.”