I could have bet anyone my last dollar. In fact, some time ago while he was in Jamaica, I told Sir Shridath Ramphal that he was wasting his time - that as good as he is, as experienced as he is, he would not be able to successfully mediate between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).

Following the admission that the former Commonwealth secretary general has failed, I am willing to bet anyone that when it comes to making peace between the board and the present players through their association, that no one, not even the politicians, including those who believe that they have the answers, will be able to mediate successfully.

The players, most of them, are selfish, they have forgotten the help they got along the way - from volunteers in their schools and in their clubs, they apparently care little or nothing for the survival of the game, the development of the young, and the survival of the clubs probably matter little to them.

Without probably even understanding what they are demanding, regardless of what WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine has said from time to time, they want their pound of flesh, regardless.

Not equipped

And the board, although it has started to show some strength in the face of opposition from a section of the public and the politicians, who usually jump to the beat of that section of the public, has too many among its membership who should never be in such a position of responsibility and who are not equipped to deal with the problems.

As a former player, Kenneth Benjamin said a few days ago, while echoing the words of so many in and around the game, many of them are in it simply to feather their own nests.

West Indies cricket is a misfit in the world of professional sports where it is the only 'national' team in the whole wide world which, in the absence of real professionalism - of a professional base where the players are paid by first-class teams or 'business' organisations, franchises, based on their profits or their so-called profits, pays the players so much money, relatively speaking, for repre-senting their country.

West Indies cricket has reached the stage where their differences, apparently, can only be settled, and hopefully so, by arbitration.

In other 'countries', in countries like England, Australia, South Africa, India, and New Zealand, in the United States of America, Italy, Spain, France, in Brazil and Argentina, etcetera, etcetera, cricketers, sportsmen in other sports, in sports like soccer, track and field, tennis, baseball, basketball, American football, and ice hockey are true professionals.

In cricket, they are employed by counties or states, and in some sports, they are employed by clubs, by privately owned franchises like the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys, Manchester United and Real Madrid, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.

In others, like tennis, golf and track and field, they turn pros and ply their trade on the circuits.

In each case they get paid as professionals, and whenever the time comes around to represent their country, and if they so desire, they make themselves available.

Based on what I know, on what I have been told, those who do so, do so for glory, for personal satisfaction - for nothing much more than pocket money.

Apart from those who play in England, before the coming of the IPL, West Indian cricketers made their money playing for the West Indies - not for playing for members clubs like Kingston CC, Melbourne CC, Lucas CC, St. Catherine CC, and Kensington CC in Jamaica, or for Empire and Pickwick in Barbados, for Queen's Park CC in Trinidad and Tobago, and for Georgetown Cricket Club and Everest in Guyana.

They also do not make money playing for the territories in regional first-class cricket - for Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands.

New proposals arise

According to Sir Shridath, the mediation fell through because the board, at the last moment, came up with new proposals and refused to budge. According to the board, however, based on word coming out of it, that was not so.

According to the board, Sir Shridath presented a document to be signed which did not reflect what its representatives had agreed on, and they refused to sign it.

The document, it is said, included situations with the players image which needed agreement between the board and the sponsors, it included setting up an adjudicator to mediate at all times between the board and WIPA - something which, in the opinion of the board, probably meant it could not move without the blessing of WIPA, something which meant that the board, the body duly elected by the fraternity, would be controlled by some one else, it included getting a WIPA rep on the board, and apart from objecting to having someone on top of it and therefore in charge of West Indies cricket, the board reminded the mediator that a place on the board, courtesy of the board, was previously occupied by the WIPA president, who walked away from it.

According to Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana, chairman of CARICOM, the man who, at the request of WIPA, called the two parties together, and the man who appointed the mediator, it was his belief that when, after calling the strike, WIPA made all their players available during the Bangladesh series, it was the basis of a return to normality in team selection, and he was surprised to learn that at that time a team for the Champions Trophy had already been selected.

That may have been President Jagdeo's belief, but after the board, in its opinion and for a peaceful life, had backed off on many occasions in the past five or six years, after the players had gone on strike and had been allowed to come back when they so desired, after the board had lost money, and matches, in the process, the board decided, and rightly so, or understandably so, that this time around they will not be allowed back until everything is sorted out, is signed and sealed - and in black and white at that.

There is right and there is wrong on both sides, the two sides seem determined to fight it out to the bitter end, and although it appears set to take some time, even though West Indies cricket could be further embarrassed, maybe this is the best thing for cricket in the West Indies.

At the end of it, things may change, not exactly as the Patterson Report suggests, not with a body above the board, not with people representing organisations from every walk of life suddenly becoming cricket aficionados and directors of the big board, but in a way that will see organised cricket reorganised, that will see the clubs, the so-called members club, restructured to mirror today's society, and in a way that will see quality people getting back into cricket so that, through elections by the fraternity, cricket will be able to call on quality people to run its affairs.

Question

We can talk all we want to, there is one question which needs to be answered: based on the constitution of the West Indies Cricket Board, based on the constitutions of the clubs and of the territories, how can the change come about and who will take up the challenge to make the change - the challenge of getting the people together, from all around the West Indies, of putting together a structure that will attract quality people and one that will get quality people to serve the game.

People who love the game, people who love West Indies cricket and who understand the importance of it. People who respect those who play the game, and people who will encourage those who play the game to respect the game and those who, in whatever way, shape, or form, support the game.

Maybe, in the interest of the game, the time has come for the ICC, the game's governing body, to get involved. I am willing to bet may last dollar that if the problem was in soccer, if it had anything to do with the Olympic Games, FIFA or the IOC would have been involved long ago.