Indian seniors’ absence won’t upset Windies fans: Roberts

Possible absence of Indian seniors on WI tour won't affect Caribbean spectators, reckons Andy Roberts

Indian seniors' absence won't upset Windies fans: Roberts

Possible absence of Indian seniors on WI tour won't affect Caribbean spectators, reckons Andy Roberts

West Indies pace great, Andy Roberts reckons it won't make any difference to cricket lovers from his part of the world if India arrive in the Caribbean without their top stars for a five-match one-day series and a three-match Test contest this June. "I don't think it matters, who the opponents are, as long as West Indies is playing good cricket. At the moment, we are not playing good cricket at all," Roberts told MiD DAY as West Indies lost the second match of their five-match ODI series against Pakistan at St Lucia on Monday.
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West Indian cricket lovers enjoying the action from the roof of a stand
in Barbados. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

Roberts played 47 Tests for the West Indies from 1974 to 1983 and claimed 202 wickets, 67 of them came against India in 14 Tests. He was part of the West Indies playing XI that lost to India in the 1983 World
Cup final.

Will they go?
The Indian cricket board has not confirmed the non-participation of their biggest stars, who want a break because of the gruelling schedule, but it has been reported that players like captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are likely to miss the tour. It is also learnt that the seniors are only keen on playing the Test series, a segment of the tour which has yet to be finalised.u00a0

Roberts was pained at the state of West Indies cricket. Asked whether it was getting too tough to promote the game in the face of competition from other sports, the 60-year-old Roberts said, "I don't think so. It's just that our administrators are doing a lousy job. They are just not doing enough for the game and that's the problem. At the moment, Joel Garner is the only former player involved in administration.

"They just don't want the involvement of certain people. There are people who are objective and will criticise and administrators don't want that.

"We have people who have never played the game and they are administrators. They don't want anyone telling them what to do. They don't know, but they won't listen."