WI Board, players praise agreement

THE WEST Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) have expressed great satisfaction with the recent agreement which has brought an end to the dispute between the two bodies over the last 12 months. In a joint statement, WIPA and the WICB noted: “The agreement has brought to an end the long running contractual dispute and paves the way for the resumption of negotiations between both parties.” On Friday evening, Dinanath Ramnarine, the WIPA president, said he was indeed happy to see the matter settled. As a mark of respect for the ongoing process, he chose not to go into too much detail, but said the next step was to get the long-awaited retainer fee for players in place.

According to the statement, the negotiations will now centre on concluding the memorandum of understanding, contracts for retained players including player remuneration, and match and tour contracts for players contracted outside of the retained players, and the signing of the collective labour agreement.  Two weeks ago the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) settled the matter and said it would go a long way in bringing West Indies cricket back together.  The ICC had said they and FICA planned to fix the problem that was “damaging West Indian cricket.” “To reach agreement, both sides have made concessions in order to reach a sensible, balanced and pragmatic solution to what is a difficult and complex issue,” ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said.