BCCI sends ultimatum to West Indies Cricket Board over $41.97 million due in damages

According to ESPNCricinfo.com, 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' 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 threatened legal action if the WICB did not respond.

In a two-page letter, Patel said that the BCCI had "acquiesced" to WICB's request in November to be given a grace period of 40 days to respond to the BCCI's original claim. Calling the pullout carried by Dwayne Bravo and his team after the fourth ODI in Dharamsala as a "monumental disaster", Patel asked the WICB to respond within 15 days from the receipt of the letter. 

"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. "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."

The BCCI has already cancelled all future bilateral engagements with West Indies pending resolution to the matter.

LaRocque had sent a letter to Patel expressing WICB's inability to compensate the BCCI and requested more time, back in November. But Patel claimed that WICB had failed to put forth any alternative solution. "The BCCI cannot any longer hold off from pursuing its claims against WICB in the appropriate forum being the courts in India." 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," added Patel.

The Windies had abandoned the 5-ODI series against India in October after playing the fourth ODI, because of player contract disputes with the WICB.