WI dispute: Case of dismiss in haste and repent at leisure (7 November 1998)

7 November 1998

WI dispute: Case of dismiss in haste and repent at leisure

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

A BIZARRE performance is unfolding on the neutral stage of London as the West Indies Cricket Board fight for their authority over players who know that if they stick together they will win. Quite how important the battle is that they are fighting is hard to gauge, but if it is right that there is nothing more in dispute than additional payment for a week of practice, some extra meal allowances and a guarantee of security in South Africa, it is hard to think that it is truly a cause c?lŽbre.

The WICB had their supporters when they made their unanimous decision to strip Brian Lara and Carl Hooper of their appointments as captain and vice-captain in South Africa and to remove them from the tour altogether. An impecunious board could not be seen to comply with two cricketers who have disobeyed official edicts before and lived their lives with too much of a swagger for the liking of many. But now that the players have apparently rallied round the former captain, it looks like a case of dismiss in haste, repent at leisure.

There is surely too much at stake in this tour, especially from the South African end, for the major part of the programme at least not to go ahead. But if Ali Bacher, a political negotiator of the highest class, cannot broker a deal it is certain that Henry Kissinger would have no chance.

The journey to Heathrow of the five players who had gone to Johannesburg from the ICC tournament in Bangladesh, while Lara and Hooper diverted to London, has left Pat Rousseau and his board in an almost impossible position. If they restore the captaincy and vice-captaincy to Lara and Hooper they will be seen to be pawns of the players they employ; if they stick to their decision to sack them they will be condemning the West Indies to certain defeat in South Africa, with the divisions and backlashes which are guaranteed.

Having taken their disciplinary action, that is the risk board officials must take, although they could not remain in charge of West Indian cricket for much longer if a weakened side were to be humbled.

There could, too, be international repercussions of the kind which became inevitable when Kerry Packer, determined to get the television rights to cricket in Australia, took on not just the Australian cricket establishment in 1977 but the boards of all the other Test countries, too. He proved that with the majority of the world's best players on his payroll, and legal right on his side, he could call the tune; and the players discovered they were worth more than any of them had ever realised.

If the players win concessions from the board now, whether or not Lara is reinstated, it is not hard to imagine their counterparts in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka following suit at some later date. The Australian Board have only recently agreed new conditions of pay for Test and state players after lengthy negotiations with a players' association prepared to strike if necessary and in England the Professional Cricketers' Association are starting to flex their collective muscles in various ways, not least by requesting (demanding?) a bigger annual donation from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Even at county level, chief executives have watched with alarm the way salary bills have escalated in recent seasons, not least because agents have become involved. Among the most prominent are Lara's agents, Johanton Barnett and David Mannasseh.

But each country is different and the cricketing islands of the West Indies are unique: a collection of third world countries where cricket divides, alas, more often than it unifies. There was real hatred of Lara in Jamaica when, on Jan 20 this year, he was announced as captain in preference to Courtney Walsh, a player of lesser talent held in wider respect because he has never believed himself to be bigger than the game.

Lara has, it seems, although it is hard for anyone to conceive the sort of human and social pressures he faced after making, in the space of a few weeks in 1994, the world's highest Test score and the world's highest first-class score.

Lara may well have been acting with a measure of altruism in this case, however bad his timing. He was stated by Rousseau to be earning £32,000 from the tour under the terms of the agreement before he was sacked, exclusive of sponsorship or any additional prize money. For 47 days, that sounds like more than fair recompense from a cricket board having to fight the encroachment of other sports on the affections of the young.

Resources are small: the only profitable tours, home or away, for the West Indies Board until South Africa came into the equation have been those involving England and Australia. But, as the ECB have stressed, role models are essential. Dismissing Lara and Hooper looks like cutting off the nose to spite the face.

As president of the players association, Walsh perhaps holds the key to the outcome of the crisis, alongside Bacher, Joel Garner and the enigmatic elder statesmen Clive Lloyd. I would propose that Lara and Hooper should tour as senior players without portfolio; and that Jimmy Adams should take over as captain.

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