Money is not the root of all evil

While discussing the present circumstances around the "matchfixing" and "pay-off" scandals which are presently rocking the cricket world, my former Test fast bowling partner Michael Holding and I came to the same conclusion. "No way," he said, "could someone have offered us money to lose a game. Our team was much too good for it to be feasible. It would have looked so bad to everyone that it would have been very impossible for us to even look as if we would lose, much less actually lose on purpose."

For once, that sentiment is universally agreed on in the Caribbean.

I am sure that no-one anywhere has missed the fact that in all of this almighty mess, and, believe me, it is an almighty mess, perpetuated over time, not one single West Indian cricketer to play at any level internationally has been mentioned in any such scandal where money is used for bribes to throw games etc. There may be other areas, some steamy indeed, where West Indian cricketers might have been involved or mentioned, but none concerned money, either the paying or the receiving of it other than by legitimate means.

Considering that the West Indies have been involved in international cricket since 1928, and nearly 200 cricketers have played for the West Indies over that time, more particularly because international cricket players only started getting some funds into their personal coffers in about 1977/8, with the advent of Kerry Packer, and most importantly of all, that we had been winning generally for about fifteen (15) years, that is a tremendous achievement of honesty in itself, especially when we were winning so often. Grown men even cried openly when the West Indies lost the 1983 World Cup to India.

Surely, in the times before we actually started to win very regularly in the 70's etc., there must have been times when many players must have actually thought, either silently or perhaps openly, "What the hell am I playing for anyway?" That thought would not have been misplaced, considering the official payments, or none thereof, then.

One would really have to examine our entire lives to see why that was, is, and probably always be so. Let us start with that allconquering team of the late 70's and early 80's and work around them.

That team, under Clive Lloyd and carried on by Viv Richards and Richie Richardson, was so advanced in its approach to the cricket; in my mind perhaps 20 years ahead of its time; due mainly to the exposure, commitment and professionalism gleaned from being involved in, and being properly paid by, Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. While many thought that, yes, we made good money for the time, many did not know the rest of the story. The West Indies cricket team of the late 70's and early 80's worked their backsides off to get to the levels reached. Where we were then should have happened, by "going through the ropes" by the mid-90's. We were at least twenty years ahead of our time.

The people who preceded Holding's and my entrance to Test cricket, he in 1975/6 and me in 1976/7, made very little money. Roy Fredericks, Clive Lloyd and Deryck Murray, all of whom were regulars when I first played, still have vivid memories of that time when West Indian cricketers were paid the princely sum of one pound Sterling for each day they were in the United Kingdom as a part of the touring West Indies cricket team. To be honest, if I tried these days to give my 10 year old daughter the equivalent of one pound Sterling now for each day that she is alive, about US$1.50 per day, she, young and thin as she is, would probably beat me to a pulp, as that would be the greatest insult. Yet, grown international cricketers were expected to survive on that. Take it from me, pride is a tremendous stimuli. Any oldster in the cricket game can verify that.

I honestly think that we in the Caribbean are of a tremendously different, absolutely dynamic ilk. Despite the fact that the entire world were making "ourds" of money more than our players, those guys before the Clive Lloyd era still persevered well, playing for pride and pleasure. Indeed, (Sir) Frank Worrell's team of 1963 actually had the moniker of "World Champions" for a short period. Sometimes, I wonder how much we really owe those guys named before, along with the likes of Charlie Davis, Maurice Foster, (Sir) Garfield Sobers, Joe Soloman, Wes Hall, Lance Gibbs and Jackie Hendricks, to name but a few, of those who preceded Lloyd's team, and the subsequent teams. It really cannot be counted in financial form. Indeed, we owe them all an almighty debt of tremendous gratitude, for, even with no funds around, they managed to play with such fervor and absolute commitment. Yet, when it is all said and done, they have been treated so badly overall since.

Fast forward to the recently losing West Indies cricket team of 1998/9, especially on tours, and you get the other side of the coin. According to a good friend of mine, an insurance executive, the team was so poor recently that no-one had to bribe them for them to lose. It was more or less a foregone conclusion and they did it naturally too. Yet, and I am quoting the present West Indian Cricket Board President, Pat Rousseau here, "the present West Indies cricket team is better paid than any other West Indies cricket team in history, and is one of the better paid bodies of cricketers around the world." Life is funny, do you not think? Where has been the production from this team, especially while on tour, to justify that accolade, if it can be called such.

While we all engage and enjoy the euphoria of beating Zimbabwe in two Tests, we should agree that the West Indies cricket team usually does very well at home. We had not lost at home before 1995 for over 20 years, so it had nothing to do with money. However, when we went on tours recently, we lost regularly. One has to also agree that the losing tours had nothing to do with money also. We simply play better at home than on tours.

Come May and June this year, Jimmy Adams and his guys have a chance to vindicate their standing as one of the better paid sets of international cricketers, in other words, justify their pay. They will be going to the United Kingdom, where, in 1995, we only managed to draw with England. Since then, we have lost every Test tour overseas. At least, no-one could say that they would have been bribed to lose. With the present winning streak now on, to quote another friend of mine, Chief Operating Officer at the largest online cricketing entity, Cric Info, "the West Indies cricket team might never lose again!!"

If only that could be so.