By Tony Becca - From The Boundary 
Tony Becca
TUESDAY'S NEWS out of Antigua regarding West Indies cricket were good and bad.
The good news was that the West Indies team to the World Cup, scheduled to get under way in South Africa on February 9, will be sponsored. The bad news was that the West Indies players were not happy with their share of the sponsorship and protested by not turning up for a scheduled session with the media.
As professionals most of them, the cricketers, like other professionals, have a right to bargain and no one should question that right.
According to information coming out of the West Indies Board, however, the problem is not that the players want a share of the US$175,000 sponsorship. The problem is that they want all of it, and if that is so, that is what is bad.
In the past, such sponsorship has been divided down the middle between the Board and the players, and according to the information coming out of the Board, that was again the offer.
The only difference was that the split would be made after the cost of the preparation camp, some US$40,000, is deducted, and even though, for a peaceful life, the Board was prepared to absorb the cost of the camp and split the money down the middle as usual, the players said no.
In fact, it is understood that the players have said that they would rather go without the sponsorship than accept half of it.
Apart from the fact that the Board must have spent some money getting the sponsorship and should at least deduct that, the players,
regardless of their right to bargain, are being unreasonable - and they are being unreasonable for the simple reason that the Board needs money to keep West Indies cricket going and that some of that money must come from sponsorship.
The players are unreasonable also because whenever there is no sponsorship it does not affect their earnings, because when they fail to perform it does not affect their earnings and because when they win they keep every cent.
If, for example, the West Indies win the World Cup, the players will keep the entire US$1 million. The Board, as poor as it is, will neither take nor ask for a cent of it.
It is at a time like this that the players need to be reminded of a few things.
The players need to be reminded that as good as they are and although they are the best in the region, the West Indies Board cannot spend all its money on them.
As the body responsible for the development of the game, the West Indies Board needs to keep back some money to keep it going - to fund, for example, coaching and competitions at the lower levels so that when these players leave the scene there will be others to take their place.
In their selfish call for everything, the players should think, not only of the cost of such things like insurance and provident funds which are for their protection today and tomorrow, but also about the future of West Indies cricket and the development of the nine, 10, 11 and 12-year-olds who love the game and who, as they did, are dreaming of becoming West Indies players.
It would be nice if the next news out of Antigua is that the West Indies players have accepted what has been offered, and remembering that it has nothing to do with their World Cup pay and that they have already signed off on that, what is really a bonus.
That would be good news, and their fans would certainly applaud them - as they will if they go to the World Cup and win the first prize money.
To do that, however, they will have to be focussed - much more than they were in 1998 when they went on strike for more money on the eve of the tour to South Africa and were properly thrashed in both the Test and one-day series.
