Of Promises and Undeliverables

The issue of unpaid players going back to the 1980s has its roots in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) making promises that it could not deliver.

Barbados Nation cricket writer Tony Cozier provided an insight into the controversy in his Sunday column and says it is "surely more than simple coincidence" that the issue would come to the fore at the same time the players' association is accusing the board of selling what it does not own.

"If the circumstances then were far different from those that have led to the present impasse between the West Indies Players? Association (WIPA) and the WICB, the board, as now, ran itself into trouble by promising what it could not deliver," Cozier wrote.

Cozier, who has been covering West Indies cricket closely for 40 years, said the idea of the 1983 contracts was first discussed at board level following the exodus of the first "rebel" team to apartheid South Africa early in the year.

Worried that its world beating team would be enticed to apartheid South Africa with lucrative contracts, the WICB discussed retainer contracts worth some US$3,000 a year.

However, as Cozier explained, the WICB did not have the money required the fund the retainers. "To overcome the problem, then president Allan Rae wrote to the various governments asking them to underwrite the contracts, convinced that their vehement opposition to apartheid and to the rebel tour would be enough to guarantee their agreement," Cozier wrote.

"Even before the replies were in, Rae dispatched pro-forma contracts to the team in London and the 13 players duly signed. Rae and the board were shocked when the governments did not respond," he added.

"Only Jamaica and Grenada agreed. Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago said they would look after their own, thank you very much. St Vincent and St Lucia bluntly turned down the request, stating that no one should be paid for doing what was morally right."

In other words, the well-intentioned but erroneously executed plan collapsed and, not for the first time, the board found itself in an embarrassing bind," according to Cozier.

The board eventually distributed what money was collected equally between the players but the players are still not happy that the WICB breached those contracts.

Cozier believes that issue should underline the need for the WICB to "be careful to sign only on that which it can deliver."

"If not, its blunders will come back to haunt them, even 21 years down the line."