World T20: Sachin Tendulkar lauds ‘True Champions’ West Indies, slams WICB over conflict dispute

As West Indian batsman Carlos Braithwaite sent the white ball soaring into the Eden Gardens stand for the fourth time in as many balls, Twittersphere flooded over with a flurry of emotions. Everybody’s second favourite team had clinched their second ICC World T20 title. And it soon emerged that it wasn’t just us mere mortals who were rooting for the men in maroon on Sunday. Even God had picked sides. At 11.01 pm, about half an hour after the match had been sealed with a six, Sachin Tendulkar tweeted: WI all the way!! True champions, be it u19s, women’s or men’s championship! Super stuff by team WI! Brathwaite was breathtaking!  #WT20Final

WI all the way!! True champions, be it u19s, women's or men's championship! Super stuff by team WI! Brathwaite was breathtaking! #WT20Final

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 3, 2016

And while this met with the usual deluge of likes and retweets, as is the norm for basically everything Sachin Tendulkar does on Twitter, there was even better to follow. In his post-match presentation ceremony, West Indies skipper Darren Sammy spoke about the contract-related disputes the team has been having with the West Indies cricket board, and how he and his teammates felt the attitude of the board was “disappointing”. This, too, found resonance with the Master Blaster. A second tweet appeared at 11.36 pm, this time urging the cricket board support the team and address their concerns.

WI players emerged true champions overcoming challenges on & off the field. West Indian Board should support them & address their concerns.

— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) April 3, 2016

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Sammy’s passionate plea came after he said the players feared they might not even get to play this tournament. “People were wondering whether we would play this tournament, we had issues with the board, Mark Nicholas called us ‘players with no brain’. But all of us came together, these 15 men put adversity aside and played this type of cricket in front of such passionate fans. It was tremendous. I want to thank the coaching team, Phil Simmons,” Sammy had said. Echoing similar sentiments, former captain Dwayne Bravo too said he and some other players were being shunned from the 50-over squad by the board and that the country’s cricket is “not in the right hands”. “If we look at the calendar, we don’t have any more T20 matches this year. We are not picked for the ODIs. There’s a series that’s going to happen with South Africa but we will be playing in England (Natwest Blast) whereas we should have been playing for the West Indies. Look at the love we get over here. Even the BCCI does more for us than our board,” Bravo had said.