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IT is 29 years since the West Indies players on the 1973 tour of England formed their association.

It was, wrote Deryck Murray, one of the driving forces behind the move, "the concept of worker participation being applied to cricket".

"In any industrial relations, money is a vital part of any discussion," stated the wicket-keeper and vice-captain at the time. "But it is by no means the whole story and cricketers are as much concerned with facilities such as hotels and travel, insurance against accident or injury, provisions for retirement – in other words, conditions of work – as with wages."

"Like any group of professionals, we need an avenue through which to raise pertinent points," Murray added. "The major consideration, however, is that it is co-operation between worker and management which is essential to the success of any venture."

For reasons, many of which are not entirely clear, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has not quite functioned in the way Murray and his colleagues envisaged back then.

Its dealings with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) have centred mainly around the conditions of work for those in the Test team. Its membership has not extended to all first-class players in the West Indies and that has compromised its relevance.

When Pat Rousseau took over as WICB president in 1996, his business background alerted him to the need for a stronger players' body. Like Murray before him, he saw that "co-operation between worker and management is essential to the success of any venture".

By then, the WICB had instituted its provident fund that has proved such a boon to Test players on their retirement. But Rousseau was not convinced the WIPA was functioning effectively enough and one of his first decisions was to allocate it an annual grant of US$50 000 so that it could be restructured "to include both Test and first-class players" and establish a permanent secretariat.

It was also decided that representatives of the WIPA would be invited to attend future WICB meetings "for discussions on players' welfare".

The secretariat was duly set up with an office at the Gymnasium at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex and David Holford, the former West Indies Test player, team manager and selector, appointed the first chief executive. But it hasn't been able to organise to the extent hoped and it has remained not so much a players' association as an association of Test players.

And, in spite of Rousseau's objective, a communication gap has remained.

It was most starkly, and embarrassingly, revealed in the week-long stand-off at Heathrow Airport that preceded the tour of South Africa in 1998.

"The dispute originally stemmed from a misunderstanding between the two parties," the WICB and the WIPA acknowledged in their joint statement after a settlement was reached.

The latest issue that has prompted fears of a players' boycott of the upcoming Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka was also provoked by a "misunderstanding" that arose from a clear lack of communication.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) – and, by extention, the national boards that comprise it – included the contentious clause restricting individual player sponsorship without consulting the players first. The subsequent backlash was inevitable.

The WIPA has recently had a change of leadership, in what was something of a coup by the younger members of the Test team.

At a meeting in Jamaica in May, they voted in Dinanath Ramnarine as president, in place of Courtney Walsh, and Phil Simmons, the former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies all-rounder, as vice-president with Wavell Hinds as treasurer. Roland Holder retained his position as the long-serving secretary.

Ramnarine, the Trinidad and Tobago leg-spinner, and his new executive are understandably eager to establish their credentials. The problem over the ICC contracts has presented an immediate test but the need to embrace all players in the West Indies, from youth to Test to retired, is more significant.

When I spoke to him by telephone from St Lucia last week, Ramnarine said the WIPA had started to mobilise all players in the Red Stripe Bowl to sign membership forms. Most had already done so and he was confident all would soon be aboard.

He must know that the association he now heads cannot properly achieve its purpose until it represents the interests of every player who participates in cricket organised and administered by the WICB.

•Tony Cozier is the leading cricket writer and commentator in the Caribbean.

© The Barbados Nation