BRISBANE, Australia (CMC) - Criticising the International Cricket Council's future tours programme as a system "that just isn't working for us", West Indies head coach Bennett King says the present structure of the international game virtually ensures that the West Indies will never be able to compete with the likes of Australia, England and India.

Speaking in an interview in The Sunday Mail, King explained that the system now in place, where the profits from international series and tournaments are retained by the host nations, handicaps small countries and small economies like the cricket-playing territories of the Caribbean.

The native Queenslander was speaking after putting the 15-man West Indies squad through another lengthy training session on Saturday at Allan Border Field in preparation for the four-day match against the Queensland Bulls, beginning next Thursday at the same venue.

Noting that the ICC should be concerned with giving a helping hand to the teams that are struggling - financially and otherwise - in world cricket, King focused on what he sees as one of the fundamental reasons why the former undisputed kings of world cricket continue to languish in the lower reaches of the ratings in both Test and one-day cricket.

"The revenue you can generate in the West Indies is certainly nowhere near to what you get in India or England or Australia," he was reported as saying.
"It's very hard to compete with countries that have multi-million-dollar budgets."

Prior to the regularisation of terms and conditions for tours, which includes fixed fees for host and visiting teams, the respective boards were able to negotiate fees on a bilateral basis. This proved very beneficial for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) due to the pulling power of the regional side, especially during the period of unprecedented dominance in the 1980s and first half of the 1990s.

King, who is preparing the West Indies for a three-Test series against the might of the Australians, painted a bleak picture of facilities in the Caribbean compared to the state-of-the-art structures Down Under.
"In the West Indies you struggle to find turf nets to train in. You go to a training ground and the nets have got knee-high grass and sticks in the ground for wickets," he lamented in the interview.

"When you have a look at West Indian cricketers and how they have had to develop, it's really amazing that they are as good as they are."
Despite the return of senior players who missed out on the Sri Lankan tour in July/August because of the lingering sponsorship dispute, the tourists are expected to be no match for an Australian side that showed its desire to reassert its status as the top team in the world by thrashing the Rest of the World XI in a hugely anti-climactic "Super Series" earlier this month.

"If you create a level playing field, you will get more even contests, and that's what the public wants to see," King contended.

Whatever the shortcomings of the structure and finances in West Indies cricket, King and his technical team will be trying to make the best of a difficult situation and remain hopeful that the tourists can be competitive in the series that begins November 3 at The Gabba.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World