By Tony Becca - On The Boundary 
Tony Becca
LAST week's confrontation between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players Association that led to a one-day strike by the players and caused a delay to the start of the semi-finals of the Carib Beer International Shield was an embarrassment to West Indies cricket and could have serious repercussions for the game in the region.
The strike must have hurt the sponsors, the fear is not only that they may walk away but also that other sponsors and potential sponsors may have second thoughts about getting involved with West Indies cricket, and if that happens, West Indies cricket will be in trouble.
The hope, therefore, is that it will not happen again.
For it not to happen again, however, both sides will have to look in the mirror.
Although WIPA should take the blame for what happened because of what appears its confrontational approach in its attempt to solve issues, both sides contributed to the impasse.
According to the WICB, West Indies cricket is a business, and if that is indeed so, it has a responsibility to act in a business-like manner. That responsibility includes, for example, letting its stakeholders know how its money will be spent - what percentage will go to administration, to development, and to the players.
Although, like all employees, the players, through WIPA, have a right to bargain for more money, they too have a responsibility.
That responsibility includes the development of the game and the protection of the game, and once they accept that they should keep it in mind whenever they are bargaining for more money.
In other words, instead of asking for everything or almost everything in the kitty, instead of snubbing the sponsors or calling strikes, they should leave something for the development of the game and protect the image of the game.
The players should also remember that the WICB, their employers, cannot give what it does not have, that apart from sponsors, the WICB's money comes from gate receipts and television rights, and that despite the negotiating skills of the WICB, that is based on their performance.
In dealing with the Board, the players should also remember that ignoring the call of so many of its stakeholders for them to be paid according to performance, the Board has been looking after their welfare.
Based on their performance, these West Indies players would not be earning much. At the recent World Cup for example, the West Indies earned some US$50,000 while Kenya went home with more than US$500,000.
According to Roger Braithwaite, the Board's new chief executive officer, both the WICB and WIPA recognise that Friday's action was not good for the game, that it was not good for the sponsors, and in apologising to the sponsors and to the fans, they have promised to work together to ensure that it will not happen again.
According to Braithwaite, both sides should learn from Friday's lesson, the Board is prepared to financially support training in leadership and industrial relations for members of WIPA as well as it own employees, and that is good.
Remembering, however, that the basic problem is money, what is most important is that the players appreciate that the Board's ability to earn rests with them, that the better they perform, the more the Board will earn, and that the more the Board earns, the better it will be for them and for the game.
