Lot of WI players only there for the money: Roberts

Andy Roberts is not fond of Twenty20 cricket. Despite being in England for the two-match T20I series between England and West Indies that ended yesterday, the Antiguan pace great has blamed the format for downgrading the quality of cricket in the Caribbean.


Andy Roberts

"This week's games (T20s between England and West Indies) are meaningless," Roberts told ESPNCricinfo recently. "To be honest, I do not think we are getting what we deserve as far as a competitive West Indies team is concerned.

Only half of the players are worthy of representing West Indies, and I am speaking my mind as far as that is concerned. I don't know if a lot of West Indians are feeling proud to represent West Indies at the moment.

A lot of them are only there for the money, and there are lots of reasons why our cricket is suffering," Roberts said that the end of businessman Alan Stanford's cricket empire in the Caribbean had left a huge void in West Indies.

WI cricket in tatters
"The end of his (Stanford) involvement has been a loss to West Indies cricket in terms of facilities, and the rewards he brought to some of the players. Stanford is partly responsible for what is happening in world cricket today in terms of where Twenty20 is concerned. If he hadn't put that amount into it, the Indian board wouldn't have put so much money into IPL," he said.

"I was a part of the Stanford set-up for a number of years, and the money he put into West Indies cricket, it's a great loss," Roberts added.u00a0u00a0"I never knew what he did, and as far as I'm concerned it didn't bother me, because what he did had no effect on Antiguans and Antigua," concluded Roberts. The 60-year-old Roberts took 202 wickets in 47 Tests for the West Indies between 1974 and 1983. He also took 87 wickets in 56 ODIs.