WIPA President Wavell Hinds had good intentions

On a few instances, some years ago, I had the good fortune of talking cricket with a most knowledgeable man. He happened to be on the selection panel of the Jamaican senior cricket team and he was not reluctant to share thoughts and stories on the game.

On one occasion we had already deliberated on a number of cricket subsets when the discussion turned to a particularly talented young player who appeared to be losing his way. My friend desperately wanted to see him get back on track but had not yet come up with any kind of plan to do so. Or maybe he hadn't thought all that much about it until that very moment, because then and there, as if a light suddenly went off in his head, he got the idea to entrust a more senior player with the task of urging the youngster back on a path he felt could lead to greatness.

The team member he chose for the job was Wavell Hinds, and he went on to relate that the aggressive left-hander was an extremely smart and level-headed young man. Not that there was any guarantee he would succeed, for he told me a story about another even more wayward young player who Wavell had decided to keep an eye on when they toured Australia; it didn't turn out too well (And no, I'm not referring to Marlon Black, who ended up in the hands of thugs and suffered a beating when Wavell allegedly outsprinted him while they were being chased from a night club). But if anyone could do it, my friend offered, it was Wavell.

Mr. Hinds is now the president of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA). Recently, he has run into some trouble with some of the Caribbean's international players, led by One day International (ODI) team captain, Dwayne Bravo. The players, rather explicably, were far from satisfied with the new remuneration agreement struck between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and WIPA, which, they say, have substantially reduced their wages. This pay drop for the WI players was proffered, in part, to finance improved circumstances of the regional first-class players who are currently paid next to nothing.

The draft for the new Professional Cricket league was held in early October and the matches are scheduled to start in mid November. This attempt to pay the region's first-class cricketers a living wage is an admirable and welcome one, and would undoubtedly lead to an improvement in the standard of play, which has not been very high for quite a number of years. Largely freed from economic worries, players would be able to expend more time and effort to raise their level of play. This is something that should have happened a long time ago.

West Indies cricket has been languishing near the bottom of the international rung for quite a while. So this attempt to better the lot of the of regional cricketers, thereby lifting the quality of regional play, should, in turn, serve to push West Indies cricket up in the international rankings. Hinds seemed to have thought this agenda had the blessings of the international players, and it appears they were fairly enthusiastic about fattening the pockets of their more lowly comrades; just not at the cost of substantially lightening their own.

To my mind, it is natural that the players, if they were not aware of the magnitude of the cuts, would protest. What was unreasonable is that they would have had such a violent and far-reaching reaction.

How could the players on tour, numbering 15 of a much larger group that includes most of the regional first-class players, conceive that they could simply and immediately ditch their union and abandon West Indies cricket''s most profitable tour? In doing this they have seriously undermined the already flimsy financial structure that supports West Indies cricket and have placed it on an uncertain and perilous path. Surely, the situation called for restraint.

Contrary to popular belief, the WICB, I am sure, wants to see Caribbean cricket advance; they want to see the West Indies team back near the top of the ICC rankings. They, along with Hinds, saw this agreement, not only as a victory for consensus and compromise, but as a huge step away from the mire of conflict and confrontation that prevailed in the past, and as a roadmap to plot the course for much needed gains in what has been a stagnant product.

It is unlikely that there is any merit to the suggestion of a sinister collusion between Hinds and WICB President Dave Cameron, made simply because they are from the same country and cricket club. Proximity might have afforded them some ease in working together but it does not necessarily imply any kind conspiracy.

More credible is the possible conflict of interest charge that has been leveled at Wavell by Bravo and others due to the WIPA President also holding the office of Chairman of Selectors for the Jamaican senior cricket team, and being a Board member of the Jamaican Cricket Association (JCA). He should at least give up being a selector if he wishes to keep his union position. Wearing all those caps might well be too cumbersome. It was a mistake to have accepted them all.Wavell also erred after the unrest came to light by delving into the personal in a reply to one of Bravo's letters. He needed to have kept things purely professional and it was unhelpful saying to Bravo, "never forget where you are coming from and who you have met along the way to the current location of your life's journey." Bravo might have gone there first but Wavell should not have followed suit.

Still, these missteps should not detract from the work Hinds is trying to do on behalf of the region's cricketers. He negotiated the current agreement with the best of intentions, and undoubtedly felt some satisfaction when both parties signed with little fuss. The tumultuous relationship that previously existed between WIPA and the WICB consistently hindered West Indies cricket. Hinds and his negotiating partners seemed to have been trying to help get it back in gear so it could move forward once again.

I don't know if his Presidency is now in jeopardy. I doubt that it is. In spite of the fact that the international players want him removed they each have, as far as I know, the same number of votes as the rest of the regional players one. It is hard to imagine them voting against someone who tried to allow them worthwhile wages. They would be voting against their own self-interest.