ALTHOUGH being one of the most vocal critics of T20 cricket, Jamaica and West Indies great Michael Holding says he fully understands Caribbean players’ decision to focus more on franchise than international cricket due to the significant financial rewards it offers in the long run.

Regarded as one of the region’s best players of all time, the “Whispering Death” claimed close to 400 wickets in 162 caps for the Windies in Test and One-Day International cricket combined. The Jamaican pacer, who made his debut in 1975, also won the World Cup in 1979 while finishing as the fifth-best wicket-taker with eight wickets from four matches.

During his commentary career, which he retired from in 2021, Holding refused to be part of any T20 international match or tournament broadcast, stating that “it’s not even cricket”.

Over the last decade, the commitment of players from the region has been questioned due to their participation in international franchise tournaments while the West Indies have underperformed in all versions of the game.

However, Holding has come to their defence and says it makes sense for them to secure their long-term future.

“What we need to recognise in the Caribbean is that we need cash to care. We are cursing cricketers at the moment for not making themselves available to West Indies to play in a lot of our tournaments and a lot of our series around the world but we have to recognise that cricket today is a career and a living. Cricketers, and sportspeople in general, do not have a long time at their sport or their profession so they have got to maximise their earnings,” he said.

“While they’re playing this sport they’re not going to university, they’re not learning a trade — they’re just playing the sport and working hard at the sport. At the end of them playing the sport they can’t now start a new career so they have got to maximise their earnings and make sure that they are fairly comfortable — or as comfortable as they possibly can be — when their career ends.”

Holding also pointed out that players from the legendary teams in the 1970’s tried to make ends meet by playing in the World Series Cricket, which was a commercial competition organised by former Australia media businessman, Kerry Packer.

“I’m not going to blame cricketers for running away to play in these multimillion-dollar T20 leagues around the world. Everybody knows I’m not a fan of T20 but I cannot blame cricketers for wanting to maximise their earnings,” he said.

“I want people to remember in our glory days — yes, we keeping talking about our team of the 70s and 80s — a lot of us went and played Kerry Packer cricket because he was paying a lot of money those days. When I was told how much money I was getting, I thought it was madness; there’s no way they’re going to pay cricketers that sort of money. Compared to what is happening today, it’s peanuts, but [in] those days it was a lot of money — and we went. People understood at the time exactly what was happening so we need to understand today what is happening with our youngsters in our cricket when they run off to play in these T20 tournaments and are sometimes not available for West Indies cricket,” Holding added.

The 70-year-old, while unhappy with the current state of the team, doesn’t believe the issue is down to quality.

“We have not run out of talent in the region. I hear people overseas [saying], ‘You know West Indies no longer have any talent or won’t become great cricketers.’ That is not true,” said Holding.

Holding believes Cricket West Indies should have strong discussions with the sport’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), about the revenue-sharing model, so as to fix the issue.

It was revealed in 2023 that the West Indies will only get less than five per cent of the earnings, with India getting close to 40 per cent.

“We have to make sure that the ICC understands that the way they’re sharing the pot, and all this money that they’re making from the regional tournaments around the world, the way that money is being shared is not sustainable to the younger population. We cannot be getting 1/5th of what one of the richest nations in the world are getting. We have got to be able to sit down with the ICC and reason with them as to how we can share more in that pot,” he said.