Domino effect is the big fear

Other sports' rulers and fans will undoubtedly be asking whether or not the domino effect will necessarily follow today's events. Will major British sportsmen take a lead from rugby union in threatening to withdraw their labour if the price is not right? And would Duncan Fletcher or Sven Goran Eriksson be as resolute and principled as Clive Woodward?

Fletcher's England cricketers are receiving £40,000 for the winter tours. The six-month contracts last summer were worth between £20,000 and £50,000 depending on seniority, experience and number of caps.

The nearest cricket came to open conflict was when 'shop steward' Alec Stewart complained on behalf of his team-mates about the £9,000 per man fee for the last World Cup.

An England soccer player receives only £1,500 per match but would probably earn around £50,000 to £60,000 per year with bonuses and a share of commercial income. The fact that most of them make that, and more, in a fortnight from their clubs may keep them quiet on the national front. But they might not fancy being paid less than rugby players.

However, money is not the only issue. When top golfers Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal - hardly short of a bob or two between them - put together a petition calling for an extraordinary general meeting over European Tour finances, the crux of the matter was power.

The letter written by the 'gang of four' to tour executive director Ken Schofield may have talked about money but what they were really thinking about was who should run European golf - and how.

Cricketers, footballers and others will no doubt be gauging public reaction to the rugby strike before thinking about similar action. That should put them off.

Player power is neither new nor all bad, of course. Jimmy Hill ended slave labour in football by fighting for the minimum wage. Injustices were many. Scottish rugby players received 15p a mile expenses when officials were getting 45p.

It takes particularly crass behaviour to make the blazers and buffoons who run English rugby appear to be in the right. Martin Johnson has managed just that - or perhaps the rugby union strike is merely another example of how things take only a few years to make their way across the Atlantic and into the fabric of British life.

There is a long-standing tradition of strikes and lock-outs in all four main sports on the other side of The Pond. Baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey have all suffered in the last 15 years.

The infamous 1994-95 baseball strike wiped out the World Series, slashed crowds and destroyed public goodwill. Only the home-run duel between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa resurrected the sport.

Basketball had gone 51 seasons and 35,001 uninterrupted games in a row until the first two weeks of the 1998 campaign were cancelled because of a breakdown in the collective bargaining discussions between players and owners.

Disputes in ice hockey's NHL and American football's NFL were also characterised as outrageously highly paid athletes putting greed ahead of reason.

Rugby union players are, by no means, extravagantly paid sportsmen, but their sport generates nothing like the amount of money of the big four in the States or soccer, tennis, golf and motor racing worldwide. A top-class sportsman tends to earn what the market is prepared to pay.