West Indies cricket is once again in a crisis, once again the man in the middle is Brian Lara, beside him is Carl Hooper, and once again the board has a decision to make.

The decision, this time, should be easy. The board, in the interest of West Indies cricket, should say to Lara and Hooper, enough is enough, and suspend them - long enough for them to fully appreciate that West Indies cricket is bigger than either of them and both of them together.

According to the reports, some of the senior players want more money for the tour of South Africa and extra money to attend the training session which was scheduled to start tomorrow in Johannesburg.

While no one should question a man's right to ask for what he believes his talent is worth, there is also the question of the ability to pay and even if the players do not want to know, it should be remembered the West Indies Cricket Board has a responsibility not only to them but, in an effort to ensure that others follow, that others get the opportunity they have had to the development of the game throughout the region.

Payment, in every business, is also linked to performance and apart from the fact the West Indies are no longer king of the road even if Lara can talk about days gone by, Hooper certainly cannot.

In fact, he should be grateful to those selectors who, despite his poor performances, his unfulfilled promise, kept selecting him while fans were calling for his exclusion.

The important thing, however, is that there is a right and a wrong way to go about seeking more money and to attempt to hold West Indies cricket to ransom is not the way - certainly not by the captain and vice-captain and definitely not after discussions were held between the board and the players' representative and an agreement reached.

It is also important to remember this is not the first time that Lara has flexed his muscles.

Apart from his tantrums during Richie Richardson's reign as captain and also during Courtney Walsh's time when he openly said he should have been the captain, Lara did so, for example, when he walked out on the West Indies during the 1995 series in England and after he was pardoned and fined 10 per cent of his tour fee, after he was selected for the following tour and said nothing, he announced he would not be going to Australia for the World Series Cup two days before the team was scheduled to leave.

Hooper also has a history. Apart from the times when he has failed to turn up for Guyana, he accepted the offer to go to the last World Cup if selected and after he was selected he said nothing until a day or two before the team was scheduled to leave for the tournament when he announced he was not available.

Hooper is also the man who accepted the offer to captain the West Indies at the Sixes tournament in Hong Kong and did not play after a request for more money was rejected. And more recently, earlier this year, he simply ignored the selectors and the coach when, after inconsistent performances in the Test matches up to then, they asked him to play in the Guyana/England game at Everest.

As bad as those indiscretions were, this is worse and it underlines their selfishness.

As captain and vice-captain of the team, Lara and Hooper are leaders and should be seeking solutions and avoiding confrontations.

On top of that, this is an historic tour. This is the first time the West Indies will play a Test series in South Africa, during the years of apartheid, the West Indies team was the favourite of many South Africans and there are fans who have been waiting years to see the Windies in action.

Lara and Hooper have once again embarrassed West Indies cricket and they should not get away with a rap on the knuckles. The future of West Indies cricket, as far as discipline and therefore performance are concerned, may well depend on what the board does in Antigua today.