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TIME TO BREAK THE SILENCE!
While the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board of Control and the players’ association seems no nearer to resolution, the most important stakeholders, the cricketing public are being left in the dark, not so much about the state of play of the dispute but rather just what exactly are the specific grounds of dispute.
It is known that the dispute has something to with negotiations over salaries or the fees that are paid to players. But the most devout cricket fan in the region is not clear as to just what the players are demanding and what the Board is offering and the precise grounds for this an impasse.
The public, in short, is no more knowledgeable about what is going on so that they, the public, can have their say in the matter. They are unable to make any input into the negotiations because those involved in the dispute/resolution process and bound by rules of confidentiality and the desire to do nothing that would hinder a resolution of the problem.
As such, the closest that the public has come to knowing just what are the specific grounds of contention is through statements made by our own President to the effect that during the mediation, one side did something that caused an agreement not to be reached. This opinion was rejected by the side concerned.
It is time that the cricket fans in the region take things into their own hands. There should be a regional outcry for the issues to be made public and for the cricketing public in the West Indies to have their say as to just what they expect of the region’s administrators and players.
Historically, there has been a disconnect between the fans and the various cricketing Boards. The public has always had their suspicion and reservations about the various Boards and the fans themselves have little, if any, say at all in who is elected to the various Boards. This is perhaps not novel to the West Indies but it is also true to say that there is far less scrutiny of the actions of Boards in the Caribbean than there is in other parts of the World.
For a long time the people of the West Indies have also been told about cricket being the only institution that truly unites the people of the Caribbean. And this is bitterly paradoxical because from all that has been said by various persons who have been in the West Indies team, it is far from a cohesive unit and in fact, has always- not just recently, but always- been characterised by insularity.
Some recent captains have bemoaned the fact that they do not enjoy the sort of support that is expected from some players.
So we must not feel that the problem is just with the Boards. There are serious challenges that face any team that is selected to represent the West Indies, and this is all the more reason why there needs to be a concerted effort to ensure that any disputes between the Board and the players are quickly resolved.
The West Indies will this morning be fielding a second string team in its first match in the Champions Trophy in South Africa. They will be playing one of the stronger teams in the tournament, Pakistan, who just won the World 20-20.
The West Indies team is without its top players. The ICC had left the door open for the West Indies Board to send a revised team but this would always have been dependent on an agreement being reached between the players’ association and the regional Board.
No such agreement has been reached and the cricketing public now has to endure the humiliation of watching a second string West Indies team play in South Africa.
This is not acceptable. It is time for a solution to the problems between the Board and the players’ association. It is time for the fans in the region to break their silence and let it be known that that they are far from happy.
There is now a need to do away with the formalities and for the issues to be placed before the ultimate arbiters, the fans. The issues should be made public; the points of dissent made known. It is time, also, for the Board to understand that it must exercise some form of accountability to the fans, who are far more important to West Indies cricket than the sponsors.
It is time for fans to begin to take greater control of the various cricketing associations so that these can become truly representative to the people of the Caribbean and in the case of cricket, the fans who want to see West Indies cricket do well again.
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