By Nagraj Gollapudi

The BCCI has issued an ultimatum to the WICB, asking the board to furnish the requisite $ 41.97 million as damages borne out of West Indies’ “sudden, arbitrary withdrawal” from the India tour last October. In a letter addressed to WICB president Dave Cameron and the inter-governmental Caribbean community (CARICOM) secretary-general Irwin LaRocque, BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said that failing to respond within a week from receipt of his letter would force the Indian board to file legal proceedings in Indian courts.

In a two-page letter, a copy of which is in possession of ESPNcricinfo, Patel said that the BCCI had “acquiesced” to the CARICOM request last November which stated the WICB be given a grace period of 40 days to respond to the BCCI’s original claim. Patel had sent that letter on October 31, wherein he had broken the damages into various components. Calling the withdrawal, carried out by Dwayne Bravo and his team after the fourth ODI in Dharamsala, as a “monumental disaster”, Patel asked the WICB to respond within a period of 15 days from the receipt of that letter. The BCCI had earlier already said that it had cancelled all future bilateral engagements with West Indies pending resolution to the matter.

“When CARICOM intervened in the dispute and requested BCCI to hold off on its claims for a period of 40 days from the deadline stipulated in its claim letter, the BCCI acquiesced to the same in the hope that an acceptable resolution would be achieved through CARICOM’s able mediation,” Patel wrote in his second letter, dated January 20. “However, it is with regret that the BCCI finds itself in a position where its expectations have remained wholly unfulfilled, with there being no progress in finding a solution that is acceptable to the BCCI, despite the 40-day time period having long since elapsed.”

LaRocque had sent a letter to Patel on November 14, a day before the original deadline would expire, expressing WICB’s inability to compensate the BCCI and requested more time. But Patel stressed in the letter that even CARICOM would understand the BCCI’s annoyance considering Cameron had failed to present any workable solution. “The BCCI cannot any longer hold off from pursuing its claims against WICB in the appropriate forum being the courts in India. We trust that CARICOM will understand our position,” he wrote.

“If the WICB fails to comply with the requisitions contained in our letter dated 31st October 2014 within a period of 7 days from receipt of this letter, the BCCI shall initiate legal proceedings in the appropriate forum against WICB without further intimation.”

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

IMAGE: BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel had called the pullout carried by Dwayne Bravo and his team-mates as a “monumental disaster” © BCCI

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