Calcutta: Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy has criticised Cricket West Indies's (CWI) selection policy on Monday, saying there is no point offering "amnesty" to West Indies freelance T20 stars if the board does not pay them better.
Sammy was critical of the selection policy, especially when allied to how little money the players stood to make from domestic cricket as against playing in franchise T20 tournaments around the world.
In an interview to ESPNcricinfo, he said: "That's the problem... When it all started with the past CEO (Michael Muirhead) and (former) director of cricket Richard Pybus saying 'West-Indies-first policy'. But you say West Indies first, but the first thing you do is you cut the salaries. That doesn't work.
"You telling guys 'don't go and play elsewhere (where) they pay much better, stay at home,' but the first thing you're doing is you cut the salaries playing at home."
In July, when West Indies faced the growing likelihood - and now confirmed - that they would not qualify directly for the 2019 World Cup, CWI offered to temporarily relax their ODI selection policy of only picking players who featured in the domestic 50-overs tournament.
This, they hoped, would pave the way for the likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine to play ODIs and strengthen the team's chances of getting through the World Cup Qualifiers in March 2018.
West Indies are left to play just one further ODI series, against New Zealand, before they head to Zimbabwe to feature in the World Cup Qualifiers.
In this environment, Sammy felt the temporary amnesty would not solve the stand-off between the board and the T20 freelancers, and that CWI would need to draw up flexible contracts to allow players to represent West Indies while also featuring in their choice of T20 leagues.
Sammy termed the failure to qualify automatically for the 2019 World Cup as West Indies' lowest point, but said he had not lost hope of a turnaround in their fortunes.
"It's something I spoke about. I was afraid that we would not make into the Champions Trophy. We didn't, and now to this," Sammy said.
