ONE does not know if to laugh or cry over the state of West Indies cricket.

Chaos is definitely the description of what is happening on the field, and off the field, as well.

On the other hand, if one looks at the lighter side, then comedy would be the fitting description.

You need a busload of faith!

It would seem there can’t be any cohesion between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) on any cricket matter, even if it was as trivial as selecting a lunch menu while conducting their damn retainer contract negotiations.

If this gets any worse, sports fans, you can expect to see the WICB and the WIPA heading to the High Court to settle their differences.

The fact that we are being thrashed coming and going by all the traditional Test nations, the WICB is in financial ruins with barely enough money to pay those exorbitant salaries to their senior executives, venues for the ICC World Cup are behind the time line in construction and upgrades, the World Cup is being hosted here in less than a year’s time and the eyes of the cricketing world are upon us, and West Indian cricket fans are battered and sore from these off-the-field conflicts and years of humiliating defeats do precious little to ensure our players and administrators behave like adults and place the interest of West Indies cricket above all else.

Everybody gives lip service to “the interest of West Indies cricket” but then they do everything in their power to ensure it is about how our pockets are going to be lined.

The retainer contracts should be paid according to our standings; we should be the eighth highest paid team in the world, but our administrators should also be the eighth highest paid.

I wonder how the WICB executives’ salaries compare to the salaries of cricket administrators in New Zealand and South Africa, for example.

Sports fans, you would think the players would be embarrassed by their recent performances and stop belly-aching about money as if money is the only issue that is important, and the administrators should be a little remorseful given all their horrendous mistakes of the past.

Instead, the WICB and the WIPA are going about their business the way TSTT and Digicel are fighting for market share of the TnT cellular phone business.

Or the way these UNC politicians and the party’s “wannabe” politicians are going about bathing naked in front of the nation, exposing their dirty backsides with no shame at every opportunity.

Obscene!

It seems to be a life and death struggle, as if both sides are not prepared to live with each other, but while TSTT and Digicel going toe-to-toe has brought tangible benefits to us, the consumers, I can’t see any benefit to the WICB and WIPA slugging it out like opposing divorce lawyers.

I am so sick of it, but as an information trader, I have to sift through the mud and try to make sense of it all.

How does this ennoble the West Indian nation?

Sports fans, I would much prefer to hear that Brian Lara has been named ODI captain and will be leading the West Indies during the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean and that Andrew Richardson, Rishi Bachan, and Richard Kelly have been named to the squad for the upcoming limited-over series against Zimbabwe and India.

I have a busload of faith!

The cricketing world is waiting with bated breath for the sunshine and cricket next year, and all we are intent on doing is washing our dirty linen for all to see and hear, so much so that the goal of winning the World Cup has been almost forgotten.

World Cup?

Don’t make me laugh … we can’t even get a team assembled for the Zimbabwe series.

WIPA President Dinanath Ramnarine is a bright spark in West Indies cricket, but he needs to have open dialogue with his membership, he needs to insist that they give the cricket fans some return on investment, that their performances are sustainable for their employment and that when we pay for this, they don’t give us that.

Our cricketers need to recognise that these fancy cars and lavish homes they desire is not a God-given right; hell, you guys have to earn it.

Sports fans just want to see the West Indies team playing good cricket and if all goes well, winning a few matches occasionally, so now and then we have something to warm our spirits, something to cheer us up when the chips are down as they often are with this government intent on squandering every cent of our petrodollars on the Emperor’s latest scheme, something to feel good about with our wives and children at the dinner table, even as the murder rate just steams along like a Honda Civic on the Solomon Hochoy Highway.

If it is so intolerable to this group of West Indian cricketers, the lot of them should just throw in the towel and retire to the media box.

Let’s see how they like really working for a living.

And on a journalist’s salary!

On a more positive note, Trinidad and Tobago duly completed the regional cricket double with a 125-run victory over Barbados in the Carib Beer Challenge Final at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, over the Easter weekend.

Added to the two regional titles, the national team also clinched the Malcolm Marshall Awards for the Top All-rounder: Richard Kelly, with 314 runs and 16 wickets, and the Courtney Walsh Award for the Top Bowler Dave Mohammed, with 45 wickets.

The bad news is that the performances by the TnT team were quite average, except for Mohammed’s bowling in a statistical context. The champion team did not provide a young batsman who scored runs consistently.

Jason Mohammed looks a bright prospect, but did not play too many matches because of his involvement with the West Indies youth team at the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka.

The batting was oftimes brittle and it was left to the all-rounders to pull us through, but more importantly, none of TnT’s regional rivals were able to capitalise on that particular weakness, which says something about the strength of the regional game.

TnT performed a little above average but it was good enough to dominate. It’s great, I suppose, that TnT has emerged champions for the first time in 21 years and we should feel good about our achievement, but the bigger picture, that of West Indies cricket, remains a colossal problem and one that does not have a single, simple solution.

EDITOR’s Note: As we were about to go to Press, the WICB announced that Brian Lara has been appointed West Indies captain for the third time in his career.