Bravo, Pollard turn down WICB contracts

Allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard have not accepted the one-year central contracts offered to them by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), ESPNcricinfo has learnt.

The contracts, worth US$80,000, require the players to make themselves available for West Indies at all times, but Pollard in particular has already shown a reluctance to do so. In June, he turned down a place on the one-day leg of the West Indies A-team tour to England in favour of his deal with Somerset for the Friends Provident t20.

In addition to his Somerset deal, Pollard plays for his home country of Trinidad & Tobago, was signed by the Mumbai Indians for the maximum payable amount of $750,000 to play in the 2010 IPL, and played for South Australia in the Twenty20 Big Bash, where he topped the charts with 190 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 145.03. Both Mumbai and South Australia qualified for the 2010 Champions League Twenty20, in part because of Pollard's contributions.

Bravo also plays for Mumbai in the IPL (for an undisclosed amount), and he was signed by English county Essex just to play on finals day of the Provident t20 this season. He has also turned out for Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean T20, where he made 116 runs in three innings and took six wickets with an economy rate under six.

WICB corporate communications officer, Imran Khan, told CMC Sports the board would make an announcement shortly on the players to replace Bravo and Pollard. The board also did not offer Ramnaresh Sarwan a contract, saying they were unhappy with his attitude to fitness and training, which means three important West Indies players are not contracted with the WICB.

The WICB had offered 25 players contracts on August 31 - ten of them were development contracts worth $25,000 - and gave the players until September 10 to accept them. If any player chose not to accept the contract, the board said it would make alternate offers. According to the Nation, 22 of the players have signed the contracts, while one wanted an extension and two indicated they would not accept.

The board also said at the time that those outside the contract list would still be able to represent West Indies.