Grow Up, Both of You

It just never ends. West Indies cricket's latest imbroglio involves a dispute between the administration and a union that the WICB claims may not represent all the players.

Already, the posturing is getting dramatic. The WICB yesterday released a statement in which it claims that WIPA were unable to prove their legitimacy while WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine has publicly called for the WICB directors to resign. Today, the first day of the Carib Beer playoffs appear to be cancelled as a result of the breakdown in negotiations. Ramnarine, who now surely will never play for the West Indies again, is threatening that the upcoming Australian series might be in jeopardy.

But wait a minute here - is this really the time for these antics? Why is it that the issue of WIPA's legitimacy in terms of representing first class cricketers is unresolved before negotiations started and for that matter why are these negotiations even taking place at this point in the season?

Obviously the players who make their living, or part of their living, from first class cricket need to be paid at a level that encourages professionalism and makes cricket a realistic proposition for players with talent. Similiarly, the WICB must find a balance between substantial payment and actual cash in hand. It is no secret that the WICB is poor, despite (or maybe because of) the six-figure payoff for outgoing CEO Gregory Shillingford. The thing is that Caribbean cricket is an ecosystem and each group depend on each other.

I am told that the average first class cricketer makes around US$250 per game. Over the course of the two month season, a core player can expect to make almost US$1,500 for his trouble, a bit more if his team gets into the semi-finals or finals. Certainly not a huge figure, especialy in North American terms. But to put this into context, the average Antiguan makes about US$400 per month, and the average Guyanese around US$220 per month.

There are some realities that need to be looked at here. The first is that cricket is not fully professional occupation in the Caribbean. The second is that, with no gate receipts to speak of, and nonexistent merchandising revenue, the game is solely dependent on the largesse of private sponsors.

Until a cricketer can secure a place in the senior regional side, he cannot expect to make a living in the Caribbean solely from playing cricket. This is by far not an ideal state of affairs, but it is a fact. We have seen players like Vasbert Drakes, Nixon McLean, and Jimmy Adams venture to South Africa in order to make a living at cricket. Some fringe players like Leon Garrick, Azeemul Haniff, and Lennox Cush spend their summers in the USA and Canada just to earn some money, while many of the rest have 'real' jobs in the Caribbean from which they take leave to play for their national side.

Domestic cricket depends almost solely on sponsorship to cover the costs. Games are generally poorly attended until the last stages of the competition, and sponsors usually get to dictate where the finals are held. The exceptions are when sides field the region's top players - get Brian Lara facing Curtly Ambrose and people will come. But in the years when there is no sponsorship, the boards scrounge around to produce a watered down competition that leaves most fans disappointed. In short, there is not a lot of money going into the game. But in case no one has noticed, there isn't really a lot of money in the region period.

Which brings us back to the issue of the day. In its latest round of ineptitude the WICB has allowed this situation to occur. Any competent management would have headed this off long ago, before the start of the series. For its part, the WIPA is doing its best to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Any fan of baseball in North America can tell you how that sport was essentially killed by player strikes.

Carib Beer and any other potential sponsor in the region must now be having serious second thoughts about sponsoring cricket. No wonder Busta wanted out. Can Mssrs Brathwaithe and Ramnarine suggest where the next sponsor will come from after watching this sordid state of affairs? In four years when Carib Beer can extricate itself from this mess, will we all remember Brathwaithe and Ramnarine as the men who killed regional cricket?

Both parties have a responsibility to cricket first and foremost. Whether they like it or not, WIPA and WICB are partners more than anything. This is like watching a knife fight between a pair of Siamese twins - when one dies the other one will too. It is easy in the heat of contention to puff out chests and stand firm but when the dust settles there will only be the wreckage of a regional institution and some big egos left standing.

Perhaps we need bigger men to resolve this crisis. If the two parties cannot resolve this issue today, reasonably, and in the best interests of their consituents - which incidentally includes all of us - then both organisations must remove their representatives immediately and replace them with more responsible and more competent people who can get the job done.

The right thing to do right now is to resume the Carib Beer Cup, drop the threats against the Australia series, drop the question of legitimacy, and resume discussions.

Grow up, children, both of you.