St. John's (Antigua): The International Cricket Council will offer its help to broker peace between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its protesting players because ICC wants them to field their strongest side in this year's Champions Trophy.
ICC General Manager Dave Richardson conceded the governing body was worried with the stalemate that saw frontline West Indian players boycotting the ongoing home series against Bangladesh and said they would soon contact WICB to offer help.
"The ICC is concerned. We will be contacting them soon and ask them if we could offer any help," Richardson told a website.
"Certainly if the West Indies (board) does not sort out their relationship with their players it is a concern because we need a strong West Indies team coming to the Champions Trophy," he said.
Richardson's comments came soon after the cricketers, through West Indies Players' Association (WIPA), approached the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) to intervene and solve the imbroglio.
In another development, WICB has written to individually to all the protesting players, accusing them of breaching their contract by boycotting the Official Ticket Launch of Twenty20 World Cup in St Lucia and refusing to travel to St Vincent for the first Test against Bangladesh.
The WICB has also written to WIPA, saying the strike breached the Memorandum of Understanding between the two entities.