Gordon: Retainer contracts for Wi 10

The 75-year-old Gordon made this disclosure at a media conference, held at the Executive Club Room, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

"You have to be guided by the limitations of your resources and the revenues that are available to you," said Gordon. "In the case of England, they’ve put 18-20 players on contract. "If you’re starting this, you cannot start at the same level," he added. "So you have to start at a level where you think you can raise the revenue to cover your obligations.

Gordon continued, "this is something which every player would have to aspire to, to be included in (such a list). So it will grow, and I’m satisfied that once the right signals are given, the corporate Caribbean will respond.

Turning his attention on the private sector, an area which Gordon has been involved in for most of his life, he said, "they’ll need to feel confident that the objective of winning the World Cup is doable, they need to get a sense of the steps that are being taken are thorough and I believe that if those two things are met, we’ll get a good response."

Another plan proposed by the new WICB boss is the settlement of the monotonous tug-o-war between the Board and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA).

Gordon met with WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine yesterday afternoon to deal with a number of burning issues, including the players’ personal endorsement contracts and the WICB’s handling of their contract with telecommunications firm Digicel.

An investigative report on the Board’s agreement with Digicel is being done by Justice Anthony Lucky, and Gordon said "the report will be ready by next week."

The former Trade and Industry Minister also admitted that a major goal will be producing a winning team for the 2007 World Cup here in the Caribbean, and an ad-hoc committee of eight, to be revealed in the next few days, will address the comprehensive development of players, physical and mental toughness which will deliver a consistent standard of excellence on and off the field and to deliver, in conjunction with coach Bennett King, a programme of preparation that will deliver the targetted results.

"We’ve gone through a period where we’ve almost been a mismatch and we’ve continued to dabble with ways of solving problems and we haven’t succeeded."

Gordon noted, "now we have to do what everybody else has done and take our guys, toughen them, make them professionals, give them the environment which the others have given their players and work with them.

The efforts which have been made over the last ten years haven’t solved them.

Gordon continued, "it’s a deep problem and one that wasn’t comprehensively addressed. Now we must try to do that by a different kind of development for our players."

His final plan is securing adequate and sustainable financing for the WICB’s programmes, with a three-member ad-hoc committee led by Dr Grenville Phillips, and including Don Wehby and Trinidad and Tobago’s William Lucie-Smith.