Windies pay drama not unexpected, says Taylor (8 November 1998)

8 November 1998

Windies pay drama not unexpected, says Taylor

Agence France-Presse

MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov 8 (AFP) - The split in West Indies cricket has disappointed but hardly surprised Australian captain Mark Taylor.

Having weathered more than a year of strained negotiations between the Australian Cricket Board and the Australian Cricketers' Association, Taylor feels such problems are inevitable.

"You're always disappointed to see these sorts of things happen, but they do happen, they happened in Australia last year," he said here Sunday.

"It was not quite to the same extent as what has happened in Johannesburg during the week, but these things are going to happen.

"It's like any other job -- people always think cricket is different to other forms of cricket and living, but it's not really."

Taylor's biggest surprise was the split among the West Indian touring party, with seven going to South Africa and nine staying in London.

The West Indian authorities sacked captain Brian Lara and vice-captain Carl Hooper because of the dispute with the players over pay and conditions for the South African tour.

"Obviously the big shock is that seven players turned up and there's nine back in London, so obviously things aren't great there at the moment," Taylor said.

"The players have got to get together and find out what's fair, they've got to talk to the administrators and find out what's fair and hopefully come to some agreement," he said.

"Just trying to read between the lines of what's happened over the last couple of days, I get the feeling the sides might be getting closer together, which would be great for cricket."

Taylor said the Australian and West Indian players had talked about industrial relations matters for some time.

"The West Indians have been talking to us about players' unions and associations for years now, it's not something that's just happened over the last 12 months," he said.