West Indies batting star Bravo offered Grade C contract: report

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has refused to confirm whether star batsman Darren Bravo was offered a lower level Grade C central contract for the upcoming year.

The Trinidad NewsDay reported on Saturday the 27-year-old leader of the West Indies batting group was overlooked for a top tier retainer, and given a Grade C contract worth $100,000, reports CMC.

Earlier this week, the WICB disclosed that Bravo had declined a retainer contract, along with veteran batsman Marlon Samuels and Twenty20 captain Carlos Brathwaite.

WICB Communications Manager Carole Beckford subsequently told the NewsDay on Saturday the board did not have a policy of releasing information on player contract scales.

"No, we wouldn't give that information. If the players want to reveal their scales, that's fine but we don't. We have supplied the ranges in the last press release and we thought that was sufficient," she was quoted as saying.

Beckford said, "I don't think it's important or necessary to give the scale. We have decided that we're not giving the scale, that the range is sufficient. You can assume, or you may (ask the player), if the players want to give what their salaries are specifically (that's their choice)."

Apart from Samuels, the left-handed Bravo is the most experienced member of the West Indies batting line-up, having played 49 Tests and scored 3,400 runs at an average of 40.

He is also a treasured member of the one-day team where he has played 94 games and averages 32.

According to the newspaper report, Bravo would have joined the likes of Test novices Jomel Warrican and Alzarri Joseph as players with Grade C contracts.

Grade A is the highest level contract on offer and is worth $150,000, with Grade B valued at $125,000 and Grade C at $100,000.

Twenty-three years old opener Kraigg Brathwaite was given a Grade A contract while Test and one-day captain Jason Holder secured a Grade B, the NewsDay reported.

The WICB earlier this week said that the new contracts were "based on performances from October 1, 2015, to September 2016".

During that period in Tests, Bravo struck two half-centuries on the two-Test tour of Sri Lanka, scored a century and a half-century on the three-Test tour of Australia before struggling against India this year when he managed just 139 runs at 19.

In One-Dayers, he scored 295 runs at an average of 29.5 during the period under review.

--IANS

sam/vt