Boynes to WICB: Buy out players’ contracts

Sports Minister Roger Boynes said yesterday the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) should have sought to buy out the contracts of the players. Speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference, Boynes said he could not understand why in the negotiation stages, the dilemma which the players who signed endorsements with Cable and Wireless would face, was not put on the table when the Board engaged the new sponsor and a proposal put to the new sponsor — Digicel— to buy out the Cable and Wireless contracts. “These are the best earning years of the players and I feel that could have been an option,” Boynes said, adding that his sympathies were with the players. “They need these endorsements to live. They don’t have any retainers and they don’t make a dollar outside of these endorsements,” he stressed.

The Minister said he would like to see the two sides get together and start looking at concrete proposals to solve the problem. He lamented that the matter might well end up in the courts because neither side seemed to be bending. He said he hoped the Caricom Sports Minister, acting through the voice of the Caricom Sub-Committee could intervene and see “if we can save the day for West Indies Cricket.” “I mean if we have to go with the new West Indies team, we will go, without a doubt. We will have a team. But you would like to see Brian Lara as he is still in his heyday. You would like to see Lara head the team ...and make 500 runs,” he said. He noted that the Board, which had expenses and therefore had to look for a sponsor, signed an agreement with Digicel while the cricketers had signed with Cable and Wireless, which was in direct competition with Digicel.

Boynes said his understanding was that the players did get approval from the Board to sign with other companies, “so they can have endorsements and earn  dollars since they don’t have retainer contracts.” However, the agreement which the Board had, entitled them to refuse to ratify those agreements (which the players had) if circumstances changed. “The situation has changed because there is now Digicel and the Board wants the players to sign this new contract. The players have refused because Cable and Wireless would sue them and they would lose whatever they stood to get from that particular endorsement.” Saying that he would recommend to the Caricom Sub-committee that the contracts be bought out, Boynes said he did not have the particulars to say whether the Board could afford to buy them out or not.