WI players to get June contracts

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) are very close to finalising a retainer contract with the West Indies Players Associations (WIPA). Negotiations have been underway for over a year and they are now in their final stage with meetings in Trinidad over the last two weeks. The contracts are expected to take effect in June. Newsday understands that one of the major reasons for the urgency by the WICB is that the West Indies players continue to suffer inexplicable injuries on tours which affect the composition and planning of the team. “It is believed that if the WICB can enforce this system on the players, then it will lead to a reduction in the fitness problems, as the West Indian players on contract will all have to be committed to their fitness, otherwise they may lose their retainers,” a source close to the WICB stated. “It has been happening too much and the players have not been listening to the instructions given about the off-season in terms of their health and diet. The WICB could not enforce any punishment or action because they had no power over the players,” he added.

“But now that they will be on initially one-year retainers, this will allow some major changes in the operation of West Indies cricket, and should ensure a more disciplined approach by players. Otherwise a player will be out of the team and not in with a chance to be selected until he has met certain requirements all over again,” he noted. Newsday understands that the WICB have been having serious discussions with President of WIPA, Dinanath Ramnarine, trade unionists including David Abdullah, and several young lawyers on ensuring that the laws of the retainer contracts are severe on the chosen players. “Initially there are plans for between 20 to 25 players and the WICB has examined the means of financing this through the various government bodies or independently through private sponsorship,” the source said. “As usual one of the problems is that WIPA are talking about if a player is on contract for a year and cannot play outside of the West Indies, then he should be compensated based on that as well as his standing and experience. “So that is now being finalised with different categories being discussed,” he noted.

Another situation under discussion is what action should be taken when a player does something to contravene the retainer contract. “The WIPA want to have a major say in the matter and do not want the players to have to deal with only the WICB,” said the former player. This contentious issue is causing a lot of debate among all the concerned parties. It is understood as well that several of the senior players on the West Indies team are very much in favour of the retainer, because they believe that is one of the reasons that the West Indies have lost talent in the recent past.

This is because a lot of the better players are attracted to South Africa and Australia and may therefore miss chances to play representative cricket for their countries. There is also the burn out factor. “West Indies captain Brian Lara has been calling for this retainer system to be established from a long time ago, and there is no better time than now, because we are building a young team, and we do not want these players to be over exposed and get injuries as in the past,” said the source. West Indies players Brian Lara (who was seen at “Ladies First” at Pier One on Friday), Mervyn Dillon and Ricardo Powell all returned to Trinidad on Friday after losing both the Test series (0-3) and the one dayers (1-3) to South Africa. England are the Caribbean’s next opponents starting in March with a four-Test series and seven one-dayers, with Bangladesh arriving in the Caribbean from May.