Tour saved after talks end West Indies brinkmanship (10 November 1998)

10 November 1998

Tour saved after talks end West Indies brinkmanship

By Charles Randall

TALKS between the West Indies authorities and their players ended in London last night after almost two days at the table, allowing the tour of South Africa to make a belated start.

Reinstated vice captain Carl Hooper (L) and Alan Bourdon-Cooper, the lawyer representing the West Indies team, sign the new agreement Brian Lara and Carl Hooper were reinstated as captain and vice-captain - "it was all a misunderstanding," said the West Indies Board - and whatever happens in the series, cricket attitudes in the Caribbean will be changed forever.

The players checked out of their Heathrow hotel last night and caught a South African Airways flight to Johannesburg, where they are due to arrive at 10 am this morning.

Fundamental issues and grievances, as presented to Pat Rousseau and the Board representatives, were thrashed out at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel and a 12-point proposal was agreed, which was ratified by the playing squad after more than two hours deliberation.

No details were disclosed, apart from the news on captaincy and that the fines imposed on nine members of the party had been rescinded.

West Indies Board president Rousseau denied there had been a climbdown, claiming the dismissal of Lara and Hooper had resulted from a "misunderstanding".

He said: "I don't think it's a question of us giving way and there has been no increase in the fees for the players for this tour.

"All issues related to fees and conditions for the South Africa tour have been resolved between the two parties.

"The West Indies Board and the West Indies Players' Association will work closely together in a joint marketing programme from which all funding raised will be shared between the players and the Board."

Before the talks started, the Board had flatly refused to even recognise the Association, who had Courtney Walsh as their president. The atmosphere of the whole weekend was confrontational and occasionally unpleasant.

Yesterday, the players' delegation was headed by Jimmy Adams, turning up two hours late for a 10.30 am meeting, and an agreement was finally drawn up and presented for ratification at 6.05 pm.

The brinkmanship on both sides over the past week has shocked the world's cricket community, unable to believe that a tour so important could be jeopardised.

The tone had been set at the Excelsior Hotel on Friday when Ali Bacher, managing director of South Africa's United Cricket Board, arrived from Johannesburg with a personal letter to each of the West Indian players from Nelson Mandela only to be kept waiting for more than an hour in the hotel lobby before Walsh emerged from his room to accept delivery.

This apparent slight, whether deliberate or not, did not go down well in South Africa, with one newspaper headline shouting: "West Indians show contempt for Mandela."

Bacher remained calm during his four-day stay amid all the tension around him, occasionally being called into the West Indian discussions. His hopes of saving the tour intact disappeared when the talks reached a deadlock and he conceded that today's opening fixture - a fund-raising one-dayer against Nicky Oppenheimer's XI - would have to be postponed or cancelled. The itinerary should now start in Soweto tomorrow.

Yesterday, the West Indies Board clearly had to climb down from an untenable position they took last Wednesday with the sackings and fines. Two lawyers from the British firm Collyer-Bristow were called in as expert mediators and a London marketing firm, CSS Promotions, also became involved.

The stand taken by Lara and Hooper a week ago against the terms set out on their tour contract - they refused to join the tour - re-opened old wounds that surfaced in 1995, when Lara declined to start a two-month World Series tour of Australia. Lara insisted all along that the issues were fundamental to the well-being of West Indies cricket as a whole, not just his own interests, and the 100 per cent solidarity shown by the rest of the party left the Board helpless.

The tour's late start has been bad luck for Oppenheimer, who issued a statement yesterday, with an element of righteous indignation, suggesting he was upset that several hundred tons of lobsters, prawns and strawberries would go to waste at his beautifully appointed private ground 25 miles north of Johannesburg.

More...

S Africans step up assistance

By Neil Manthorp in Cape Town

FOR once in the history of the game in South Africa, there is not a single dissenting voice. If the West Indians were not to arrive, then black and white, political and non-political, fanatical and part-time cricket supporters would all have been devastated.

The truth is that no one in South Africa ever believed the tour would not proceed. Ali Bacher's United Cricket Board have done everything in their power to facilitate the tour and were not criticised by Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh or anyone else representing the West Indian players.

A lucrative sponsorship deal with a South African company, put together by David Richardson, the former Test wicketkeeper, was achieved within weeks of his marketing company being commissioned by the West Indies Board. The question of why the request was not made months ago seemed to reflect badly on the Caribbean authorities.

Some side issues, raised by the players, were dealt with swiftly. The services of a top-notch security company were acquired for the duration of the tour.

The West Indians mentioned living expenses and meal allowances. The United Cricket Board have allocated 175 rand per player per day, equating to roughly £20, but, with the cost of a three-course meal in the team's hotels at barely £12, with steak and a couple of beers, the South Africans could justifiably claim to be acting fairly.

Every touring team have problems with the cost of overseas telephone calls, but the United Board routinely attempt to organise a local cellphone sponsor when their teams are abroad and there is little doubt that such a sponsor could have been found had the West Indies Board investigated the possibility.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)