Image courtesy of: Zimbio

West Indies batsman Darren Bravo has taken another shot at Cricket West Indies, stating that he has been less than impressed with the way the board has treated him.

Bravo and Cricket West Indies president Dave Cameron have been involved in a heated legal battle ever since a tweet was sent from Bravo’s Twitter account, in which Cameron was called a “Big Idiot”.

The tweet came after Cameron said that Bravo had been offered a Grade C contract due to his struggles with the bat.

After the tweet was sent, Bravo’s contract was revoked and he has not been allowed to represent the West Indies or Trinidad and Tobago in any domestic tournament, with the exception of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), where he will play for the Trinbago Knight Riders.

While Cameron has said that the first step to mending relations is for Bravo to delete the tweet, the 28-year-old responded by saying that there is no proof he actually wrote the tweet.

“Even though you saw a tweet on my account, on my Twitter account, no one actually asked me if I did that,” Bravo told Caribbean television network Line & Length.

Upon the events that unfolded after the tweet was seen on Twitter, Bravo revealed that neither the West Indies coach, manager or media manager asked him if he had posted it.

“No one asked me: ‘Darren Bravo, did you tweet that?’ No one asked me anything. So I went to sleep,” he said.

The day after the tweet was sent out, Bravo recalled the two emails he received.

“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 said. “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.”

However, when asked if he was the one that made the comments on Twitter, Bravo said: “I wouldn’t answer that question right now. The best person to answer that question is my legal team.”

Bravo’s legal team consists of attorneys Donna Symmonds and Leslie Haynes.

As of now, Symmonds insisted that no action will be taken until everything has been reviewed “in totality”.

“As far as we are concerned his contractual rights have been breached. There has been a rush to judgement,” she told Line & Length.

Symmonds also revealed that Cricket West Indies CEO Johnny Grave initially “made an offer” to Bravo in an attempt to end the impasse. But, Symmonds said that Grave ruined everything when he told ESPNcricinfo in April that he was infuriated with Bravo’s damages claim of $120,000.

“It had been agreed that certain statement would be made by the president (Cameron) and certain statements by Darren,” she said. “And with regard to the tweet Darren had agreed to do certain things as well, but the sticking point was one other matter. We had made a suggestion as to how that could be resolved and we have never had a response.

“I would have to say a breach of good faith and it caused the negotiations to breakdown, so we are no longer there.”

Despite everything that has been going on, Bravo confirmed that he still has a burning desire to represent the West Indies, especially in Test cricket as it is his “forte”.

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

“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 said. “That is something I have been lacking probably for the last year playing for West Indies. That is the total honest truth.

“I had two IPL contracts before Kolkata Knight Riders. 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). I have a very important part to play in the quest to revitalise West Indies cricket in the longer format of the game.

“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. Yes, I want to play Test cricket, but I have to make decisions, as I said about my family and stuff like that.”