Submitted by Pachamama
We have argued in the past that the West Indies Cricket Board (of Control) WICB(C) is a slave plantation. An institution where the house niggers on the Board constantly ‘conspire’ to end the hard won rights of our international players. Their aim, under every guise, is to reverse the benefits to international players and return them to the good old days where once our best players retired a hat would be circulated for a ‘benefit’. These vicious ‘house niggers’ or Black Bothas at the WICB(C), as an institution, did nothing to transform the world of cricket when we were ruling the universe. They lacked the vision to re-balance world cricket towards our natural strengths or as their masters in England used to say – Calypso cricket. But the Indians have captured that innate Caribbean instinct and have made 20/20 cricket the revolutionizing instrument that was always frond upon by the rootless elites at the WICB(C). So Caribbean cricket is now headquartered in India.
Not satisfied with their generational failures of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The Board now seeks to hide their perpetual non-performance under a misbegotten developmental construct purportedly to spread incomes to a larger number of people, cricketers. But this is a management problem not to be solved on the backs of international players. The MOU and Agreement which the Board has surreptitiously arrived at with a dictatorial leadership of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) President Wavell Hinds lacks any moral authority. These arrangements, unbeknownst to the international players, now seek to decrease match fees by 75%; the Board’s international slaves are to be paid no compensation for the marketing of their images; and there are to be no ICC fees for international players. The WICB(C), as slave master, are again seeking to exert rights only know to be claimed under chattel slavery.
This is not the first time. In 1991 this same Board wrestled power from the cricketers and transferred to itself. This coup d’etat effectively ended the era of dominance, was characterized by the mistreatment of Lloyd, Richards, Haynes, Lara and our giants generally. It used Richardson as a patsy in achieving the goals their masters in England required. We are talking about a Board that after 20 years of dominating world cricket still, with their perpetually outstretched, begging bowl, had to ask the taxpayers of the Caribbean for major infrastructural development monies for refurbishment of stadia. What right does this institution have to run West Indies cricket if it can’t do the basics rights? How can these people on the WICB(C) now seek to make this feeble attempt to ‘develop cricket’ on the backs of our international players? What kind of a heartless Board would want to renegotiate emoluments that leave our players being the cheapest in the world? Only a slave economy model could properly explain this.
Last time it was Richie Richardson. This time it is Wavell Hinds who is to act as a cypher to again impoverish our players, curtail their marketing power as a human right. This is supposed to be a capitalist system, no? How come communist ideas could be so brazenly enforced by a leading regional institution? What kind of an idiot could accept these terms, as presented? What manner of man could even suggest such? Nobody, nowhere in the world cares about the 95 players at lower levels in West Indies cricket the Board now seeks to redistribute other people’s money to. Certainly, people want to see the international players or watch them on the internet or TV, not second ‘eleveners’. That the Board believes it needs this cadre is a matter for the Board. The international players have no role in the financial workings of the Board, do not direct its affairs and cannot be responsible for the funding of the failures of the Board. Failures to innovate. Failures to lead when they were in a position so to do. Failures to industrialize the West Indies way of cricket. Failure of its high performance centre (HPC) to deliver even one international cricketer after a decade of investment. Failure of its intelligentsia to craft a vision which brings higher than average value. A value proposition that would take it out of the poor house and constrain its reflexive resort to picking the pockets of the international players.
The contents of the MOU and Agreement could only be arrived at through a willful conspiracy between the Board and the misguided leadership of the WIPA. Indeed, initial reports suggest that the international players were left out of the loop. Given the history of interactions between international players and Board it seems highly unlikely that such a drastic surrender of basic rights would have been countenanced by the player. That Hinds who purports to represent the WPA ignored player intervention and surreptitiously delivered a sweet heart deal to this Board reeks of illegality and should attract the attentions of a court of competent jurisdiction. This open attempt at wage thief by the WICB(C) should also result in criminal charges being laid and stiff sentences being imposed on all members of the Board and the Executives involved.
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