WIPA condemns ‘Digicel’ issue

PRESIDENT and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) Dinanath Ramnarine has strongly condemned statements made by Richard Nowell, Digicel’s group sponsorship manager, in a newspaper article yesterday. According to Ramnarine, “those comments contained unjustified imputations on the character and behaviour of West Indies players, who are all members of WIPA.” The former national and West Indies leg-spinner stated that WIPA and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) “concluded negotiations on a tour contract (with Digicel) before the departure of the WI team for the VB Series in Australia” and the players “fulfilled all their contractual obligations as specified in the tour contract.”

Ramnarine revealed that, during the month-long tour Down Under, Digicel “made unjustified demands of the players which were not covered by the agreement between WIPA and the Board.” WIPA lodged a complaint and WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite assured “that it had requested of Digicel to desist from making such demands on its players.” Ramnarine noted that WIPA “is fully prepared to resort to legal measures to protect itself and its members’ professional reputations, which has been so cavalierly and scandalously affected by this publication.”