The West Indies and Bangladesh are currently engaged in a 'Test' match in St Vincent. And, win, lose or draw, every West Indian, every true and well-thinking West Indian should wish the West Indies team, from the 37-year-old Floyd Reifer to the 21-year-old Kemar Roach, all the best.

The members of this West Indies team, four with Test experience and seven without, some of whom may have gone on to represent the real West Indies team, some of whom probably may not have done so, answered an SOS call by the West Indies board. An SOS that came when the members of the real West Indies team packed their bags and refused to represent the West Indies.

Many shortcomings

After all that has happened in West Indies cricket over the years, and the fact that the board has been guilty of many, many short-comings, sometimes, and most times, because of its inability to administer, sometimes because of a weakness that is appalling, the board must share the blame for yet another embarrassment to West Indies cricket.

To administer, to govern, calls for knowledge. It involves making decisions in the interest of those involved. It calls for getting those involved to accept those decisions, and it calls for implementing those decisions.

Weakness is a failure to come to decisions and to implement decisions. Weakness and good administration do not go hand in hand, and over the years, for many, many years, probably because of a fear of earning the wrath of the players and thus that of a public which has always been in the corner of the players, the West Indies board has been weak - very weak in fact.

From the years when the administrators of West Indies cricket were of a different class and a different hue from most of the players and the majority of the public, the public believed that the administrators were not fair, financially, to the players. Because of that, because of a feeling that West Indies players were, and are still, poorly paid, the public has always been, and still is, in the corner of the players, and that is one of the problems.

The West Indies board, which, for example, has always refused to tell the public what the players earn, has always failed to stand up and be counted.

Whenever it has been confronted by the players, it has always backed away. It has always come up with some kind of convenient 'agreement' at the time, it has always been something temporary, and it has always come back to haunt them.

Weakness of the Board

It must be because of the weakness of the board that over the last 11 years, since 1998 when the West Indies team refused to go to South Africa, almost every tour is preceded by arguments, by 'fighting' between the board and the players, through their association, over contracts and over fees.

The players, however, must take most of the blame, and they must do so for many reasons.

Two of those reasons, include the fact that although the board is short of funds, even though, as West Indians, they are well paid, the players keep demanding more money, and based on the release by the board, also that the players keep changing their demands when it comes to the signing of individual and tour contracts.

One of the reasons why the board has no money is because of a change in the tour arrangements by the ICC a few years ago - an unreasonable change which sees home teams keeping almost all the profits; another is the fact that West Indies home tours do not make money because the fans stay away; and still another, and most importantly so, is the fact that the record of the West Indies team over the last 14 years has been so disappointing that it is embarrassing.

No one can blame a man for asking for what he wants or for what he believes he is worth. The West Indies players, however, should accept the fact that the board has no money, that apart from paying them, the board has a responsibility, probably an obligation, to pay first-class players in the region a reasonable fee, to assist the clubs in their fight to stay alive and to continue their contribution to the development of West Indies cricket and the performance of the West Indies team, and, especially to the youngsters, to spread the gospel of the game around the region.

On top of that, they should accept that they are not performing - not by any stretch of the imagination.

When everything is said and done, and as bad as the board has been, the West Indies players must be joking.

Labelled as losers

For a set of players that is earning well, very well, as far as the Caribbean is concerned and as far as cricketers elsewhere around the world are concerned, for a team which, according to the board's release, was offered US$1,480,000 out of the US$2 million it received for the recent tour of England, for a team that has not been winning and is labelled as losers, for a team whose players average way below that of players from other countries, the West Indies players, in asking for more money, in demanding more money, in attempting to stick up the board while ensuring that the board loses money through the gates and elsewhere, while showing little concern for the sponsors who pay them, really must be joking.

Apart from bowlers like Fidel Edwards and Sulieman Benn who are averaging a disappointing 39.43 and 49.08 runs per wicket, respectively, the batting average of their batsmen, most of them, is embarrassing.

In comparison to batsmen like Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes who score at 43.42 and 69.16 runs per innings, respectively, for Australia, Ricky Ponting 56.20, Michael Hussey 55.29, Michael Clarke 47.82, Marcus North 40.00, and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin 37.54, the averages of the West Indians, but for Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose average is good, to an extent Christopher Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan whose averages, as top-order batsmen, are not too bad, are poor, very poor.

Batting averages

And, looking at the averages of Alistair Cook and Andrew Straus, who score at 45.02 and 43.96 runs per innings, respectively, Ravi Bopara 49.62, Kevin Pietersen 50.49, Peter Collingwood 44.20, and wicketkeeper Matt Prior at 48.40, the West Indies batsmen are no better than those of England.

Chanderpaul averages 49.28 runs per innings. The average of Christopher Gayle, the captain who, based on his actions, following his utterances, should not now be the captain of the West Indies, is 39.58, the average of Ramnaresh Sarwan is 42.32, the average of Dwayne Bravo is 32.73, and of the other regular players on the team, the average of wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin is 24.05.

Things are so bad that the West Indies players could be considered successful if, generally, the bowling averages of their bowlers were the batting averages of their batsmen, and if the batting averages of their batsmen were the bowling averages of their bowlers.

Enough is enough and something must be done about the board and who become its members.

Development of the game

I believe in good managers, and in people who can market the game.

I believe also, however, that cricket should be administered by cricketers - by those who have played the game at any level, by those who have a passion for the game, and by those who are involved in the development of the game.

The West Indies board needs more people of substance in the society - people whom the people respect, people whom the players respect, and people who can properly administer West Indies cricket in the interest of the players, the people and the game.

More importantly, however, the board needs members who are strong.

The Board needs members who are strong enough to tell the cricketers, Dinanath Ramnarine, and the players' association that enough is enough, that it cannot pay what it does not have, that it cannot pay all its money to them, that whether they like it or not, from now on its pay structure will be performance based, and while it may be hard on the young ones, especially so on one like Adrian Barath and those who were probably forced to join the strike action, that those who went on strike will remain in the wilderness for a while - long enough for them to see the error of their ways.

Apart from the fact that, in terms of winning and losing, it really does not matter, right now, who represent the West Indies, West Indies cricket is bigger than everyone, and based on the averages, it can probably do without everyone but for Chanderpaul, Gayle, on his day, and Sarwan, also on his day.

Enough is enough

Had the board, for example, put its foot down on occasions like those involving the 1998 tour to South Africa, in 2004 during the row with Cable and Wireless and Digicel when the players took sides, in 2005 when the players boycotted the tour of Sri Lanka and when they pulled out of the first Test against South Africa, what has happened now may not have happened.

Enough is enough. Regardless of their problems, I cannot see players from England and Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, India and Pakistan going on strike and refusing to represent their country, their people.

To have a grouse is one thing. To refuse, however, not to represent the board, but to represent the people, is something else, and as tough as it could be, as embarrassing as it would be, and although some teams would not want to play with the West Indies and a weaker team, the people, this time around, should not forgive them.

And it should be the same for the members of the board: if they fail to act this time around, they should be removed and replaced with people of quality - people of character and guts.