Ramnarine’s provocation reaches its zenith

– monster WICB has created is giving it hell; players must choose between WICB and WIPA

By Orin Davidson

Regardless of how you twist and turn this one around, there are no ifs and buts about the genesis of the latest shame perpetrated on West Indies cricket.
It lies squarely in the lap of the West Indies Players Association or rather, in the hands of Dinanath Ramnarine; it’s the president whose leadership of the association has been fanning the flames of West Indies cricket destruction all these years.

Ramnarine it seems has finally ignited a situation he would eventually live to regret, that is if he has a conscience.
His ridiculous demands on the West Indies Cricket Board for more and more money for the players, has reached the zenith of provocation this time around.
And the decision to pull the players from the current series against Bangladesh, makes even a dysfunctional organization like the WICB, stand out like an angel alongside Judas.
The WICB has blundered away its credibility many times over in the way they have handled the region’s cricket.
But in this case, you have to target Ramnarine, and the others who he purports to comprise the WIPA, as the chief culprits for this embarrassing standoff.
How could anyone justify the WIPA demanding US$1.9 million from a tour that earns $2M?
So far Ramnarine has not refuted the WICB’s claim about the demands made for the last tour of England.
Nor for any of the other claims the WICB made when stating its side of the story.

Now, one is not talking about Australia, South Africa or any of the other heavyweight teams of world cricket demanding almost all of the appearance money for a tour.
This is the West Indies that has been forever, it seems, anchored at the bottom of the world rankings.

Therefore it would be only fair to conclude that the other obnoxious demands like wanting more than 25 percent of the WICB’s earnings from the Twenty20 World Cup or for claiming more than the accepted salary structure and sponsorship rates, for the India series, are correct.

And you don’t have to be a super agent like that of  Tiger Wood’s or Alex Rodriguez’s Scott Boras to accept that this West Indies team that wins almost nothing, is worth no more than the standard salaries the WICB offers.

As for the retainer contracts, one shudders to imagine the demands that are being made.
The WICB rightly has rejected Ramnarine’s outrageous demands.
Then true to form, he goes around the region crying foul about the players not having contracts for the last four competitions, when he is making unrealistic demands.
It is a case of deception of the highest order and it is a great pity the players, the senior and more exposed WI players, cannot figure out Ramnarine’s policy, which amounts to nothing less than blatant opportunism.

They blindly accept every dishonourable WIPA act, and it will be even sadder if the young promising players, supporting the standoff, have to pay with their careers for refusing to represent their nation now, to satisfy the naked greed of an association and its president which only springs into action when the issues are about money.
Where was Ramnarine when Marlon Samuels was about to have his career torpedoed by a frivolous charge of match fixing?
Not a word was forthcoming in support or anger.

Also this was the same WIPA that made Shivnarine Chanderpaul, abandon a regional first-class game smack in the middle, at home to attend the association’s presentation function in Trinidad and Tobago, and shoulder withering criticism in the process.   And to further legitimize its real agenda, the WIPA has formed the West Indies Players Management Company, which means it is doubling up on its revenue money from the same source which happens to be the players.  No where in the world of sport you would have a players association, also being the agents of its players and who claims to control their image rights.
In many countries including the United States, such an obscene act would be down right illegal.

Agents are required to maximize revenue earnings through negotiations for players’ activities on and off the field.
They earn a percentage of those earnings, and do not control anything whether it is intellectual property (IP) or image rights.
But only in the West Indies is all this possible.    At the same time Ramnarine goes around casting blame, he should tell the public the percentage cuts his management company and his association makes from the players’ earnings. He would be doing his share of accountability to the West Indies public as a result instead of making the players feel the WICB has a right to earn them as much money as those from the big economies of India, England and Australia. The big difference in cricketer earnings worldwide are from the endorsements players from India, Australia and England make which outstrip the total earnings of their West Indian counterparts.

So unless you are a WI player as good as, or close to ability of the retired Brian Lara, you would not derive huge endorsements from around the world.  The meagre West Indian economies cannot support big contract endorsements for players thus the WICB cannot be pressured to make up the difference.
It is one disadvantage for the West Indian sportsman.

All along though, the WICB was clueless enough to agree to the current Memorandum of Under-standing with the WIPA which gives the association supreme power to the extent that the WICB has to negotiate every move the players make.

It has reached a stage where it appears as though the players are employed by the WIPA instead of the WICB.
Now, the monster the WICB has created, is giving it hell.

It means the players have to take the bull by its horns and choose between the WICB and the WIPA.
They would be foolish to go for the latter.