Can't we all get along?

boards is probably five to six times higher than WICB's, so they can offer more lucrative retainer contracts to all players, making it easier to sell the idea that any additional earnings should be performance-based.

3. The MOU that WIPA and WICB signed seeks to replicate the 'developed-world' model. It includes other new concepts that reflect a move towards additional earning opportunities for players based on performance.

4. These transformational payment concepts have come at the expense of previously 'guaranteed' payments to internationals. But, it could be argued, that's a necessary casualty of the fight to take WI cricket from mediocrity to meritocracy.

5. In all this, the Caribbean's economic reality cannot be overlooked. There's no vibrant sports rights market to drive TV revenues for the rights to West Indies home series. The WICB is heavily

subsidised and forever operating on overdrafts and other forms of debt.

6. The new MOU is a means to an end. It's not a guarantee

of West Indies cricket's future success, but it's an attempt to recognise that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results hasn't worked.

Yes, Wavell Hinds cocked up the process, by which this MOU should've been negotiated and agreed. But this is the first real opportunity to transform West Indies cricket since 1995.

If we don't stop this silly

public spectacle resembling a playground scuffle with non-participatory schoolboys forming a ring and shouting

excitedly, "Fight! Fight!", we'll live to regret it when future West Indies teams are relegated to playing only with Bangladesh and New Zealand. Be

careful. The future is now.

Peace and love.

n Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email

feedback to columns@

gleanerjm.com.