Tony Becca
THE WEST Indies Cricket Board (WICB)and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA)are scheduled to meet today to discuss the retainer contracts for the players and hopefully the matter will be settled - at least for another year.
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 is scheduled for next March, it will be hosted by the West Indies and its success, as far as crowd support is concerned, could depend on the performance of the home team.
For the home team to do well, however, the West Indies will have to be at their best and it would be an embarrassment to West Indies cricket if they are not at their best.
Cricket fans around the region are therefore praying that the problem between the board and the association will be settled today so that as they head for the World Cup, as they prepare for the World Cup, the West Indies will do so in unity and will be able to put out their best team against Zimbabwe, against India, in the ICC Champions Trophy, and possibly also against Pakistan and Australia.
For the matter to be settled, however, something has to give, one party will have to step back, and with the problem, it appears, being the money offered in the retainer contracts, it is the players who should back off a bit.
As representatives of the West Indies, as the best players in the region and as players who are expected to perform and therefore to train and practice, the players, who, because of their heavy schedule, because of the time needed to train and practice, have no time to work and should be paid well so that they can at least live comfortably and eat well.
AFFORDABILITY
Well paid, however, is comparative and it is and should be based on affordability.
West Indies cricketers, for example, cannot and should not expect to be paid as handsomely as American sports stars or even as cricketers in Australia, England, South Africa and India, and apart from their poor performances recently, apart from their failure to train and practice, there are three reasons for that.
One is that the region is not rich. In fact, the region is poor. Two is that for a number of reasons, including the change in the payment structure for tours, West Indies cricket is not making the kind of money it used to make from tours to countries like England, Australia and India, and apart from spending too much money on administration and on a top-heavy staff, because of that, the West Indies Board is broke, stone broke.
In pleading with the players to be reasonable, former fast bowling star and former board president Wes Hall, former batting star and captain Richie Richardson and former fast bowing ace and former coach Andy Roberts, have said that the board can only pay what it can afford, and in the interest of West Indies cricket, the players should listen to them.
On top of that, the Board's Cricket Committee, made of up champion players of the past like Clive Lloyd, Deryck Murray, Michael Holding, Roberts, Desmond Haynes and Ian Bishop, players who all complained of poor treatment of one kind or another during their days in the sun, including financially, have said that the retainer contracts are in line with those of the other countries, and again in the interest of West Indies cricket, have encouraged them to sign and get on with the job of playing the game, representing the West Indies and building West Indies cricket.
SIGNING CONTRACTS
Dinanath Ramnarine, the tough-talking president and chief executive officer of WIPA, has said, however, that no one, not even the greats of the game, not even those who have been there, those who performed and conquered, can pressure him into getting the players to sign the contracts until he and his association is satisfied that it is in the best interest of the players for them to do so.
Based on his uncompromising stand in the past, he may well be prepared, despite its effect on West Indies cricket, to stand firm once again - to squeeze every dollar out of the board.
Hopefully, however, he will see the light and will appreciate that the Board cannot pay what it does not have, that it cannot pay all it has to the players and that based on the players' performance in recent times - on the fact that but for Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, the West Indies are the worse team in the world today, that during their recent tour of Australia the West Indies did not play in Melbourne and Sydney, and that in New Zealand they played before empty stands, he is lucky that the board is in a position to offer them anything at all.
