WICB deny contract talks with players

Brathwaite said he, along with manager Tony Howard had met with the West Indies team in Kingston last Tuesday after the second and final Test against Pakistan but the meeting did not entail discussing the controversial match tour contracts which are still being negotiated.

"The Board thought it fit to let the players know about matters which affect their interests," Brathwaite said in a WICB release yesterday. "With the Digicel Home Series ended, we took the opportunity to speak with them briefly as a group before they departed for their respective homes."

Brathwaite said he indicated to Ramnarine in a letter dated June 7 that no discussions had taken place with the players as it related to the details of the negotiations between WICB and WIPA.

"I told him (Ramnarine) that I took the opportunity to inform the players that the WICB has been trying without success to meet with WIPA since the start of the Digicel Home Series but this had not proved possible," Brathwaite said. Braithwaite also added that "the WICB respected good industrial relations practice."

The release said that Brathwaite also informed the players that based on recent discussions with WIPA, they hoped the two parties could meet on the issue soon. Brathwaite also advised the players that the match/tour contract for the forthcoming tour to Sri Lanka had been forwarded to WIPA so that an early agreement on the terms and conditions for the tour could be reached.

Last week, Ramnarine had voiced concern over Brathwaite’s meeting with the players without the prior knowledge of WIPA and communicated this in a letter to the WICB. The letter, quoted by the Trinidad Express, claimed that Brathwaite had used the meeting to update the players on the negotiations between the WICB and WIPA on the match/tour and retainer contracts.

"(WIPA) condemns such a meeting as we strongly believe that this is against good industrial relations practice and another attempt by the WICB to negotiate in bad faith," the letter was quoted as saying. "While WIPA is committed to building a relationship with the WICB, we intend to do it with mutual respect and will not accept that kind of behaviour by the WICB now and in the future. We look forward to an urgent explanation on your meeting with the players last Tuesday."

The West Indies are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in July for a two-Test series followed by a tri-nations One Day International tournament in August, involving India.