Darren Bravo has expressed disappointment over the way he has been treated ever since he called Cricket West Indies president Dave Cameron a ‘big idiot’ on Twitter. Bravo hasn’t played for the national side since then and was also dropped from the Trinidad and Tobago squad. “I had two IPL contracts before Kolkata Knight Riders,” Bravo told the television show Line & Length. “I give up those two contracts. I also had opportunity to go and play in the T20 World Cup that West Indies won in India. I gave up that to stay home and play first-class cricket.
“I could have jumped on the plane, gone to the T20 World Cup in India. If I get selected all well and good. If I don’t get selected, no problem, but I would have got approximately US$ 7,000 for one T20 game. I decided to stay home to play first-class cricket (where) I get paid $1300 (per match).”
Even though Bravo feels that his sacrifices haven’t yielded the desired results, the Trinidadian admits that he has a role in improving the West Indian Test side. “I have a very important part to play in the quest to revitalise West Indies cricket in the longer format of the game,” Bravo admitted. “I have given up so much for West Indies cricket and the way I have been treated is like, my efforts and my energy and my whatever went all down the drain. And I don’t like the way I have been treated.”
Recalling the developments post his tweet, Bravo, in a bizarre manner, claimed that none of the officials contacted him to confirm if it was indeed him who had posted the tweet. “No one asked me: ‘Darren Bravo, did you tweet that?’ No one asked me anything. So I went to sleep,” he said.
The following morning, the left-hander received two emails. “One from Richard Pybus, former director of cricket stating my contract has been terminated and I am being sent home and the other from Roland Holder (cricket operations manager) with my flight details,” Bravo recalled.
“But no one actually asked me anything. So I was left in a situation of what is really going on here. And it was also a situation where they gave me an ultimatum, after being sent home, to take down the tweet by 4 pm and apologise on Twitter. But, at the end of the day, no one can prove that Darren Bravo actually went on his Twitter account and tweeted that. There was no due process. No one asked me any, anything. Up to this day no one has called me and asked me anything. So it has been very disappointing.”
The 28-year-old also refused to answer whether he put out that tweet or not. “I wouldn’t answer that question right now,” he said. “The best person to answer that question is my legal team.”
Despite indicating that he wasn’t in a good space playing for West Indies over the last twelve months, Bravo has once again expressed his desire to don the national colours. “Yes, I want to play cricket for West Indies again, but at the end of the day when I step on to the field I want to be able to be happy, I want to be able to enjoy my cricket once more,” he stated. “That is something I have been lacking probably for the last year playing for West Indies. That is the total honest truth.”