WIPA complains about 'woefully inadequate' facilities

Tue, Feb 10, '09

 

This is the full text of a media release from the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) regarding sub-standard facilities during this year's first-class season:

We at WIPA continue to receive complaints from teams in the current regional series about the poor and inadequate facilities for practice before the start of games with the host teams. As you are aware, teams arrive a few days before the games with the intention of getting themselves “acclimatized”. They, accordingly, expect, in accordance with our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the Minimum Standard Document (MSD), to have these facilities adequately prepared and available.

In the case of visiting teams to Trinidad and Tobago, the Jamaica, Windward Islands and Combined Campuses and Colleges found the practice venues woefully un-prepared and inadequate.

In fact, one team even had to make private arrangements with local clubs “to get in some practice”. This is simply not acceptable.

While the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), like other Territorial Boards, is responsible for making the necessary arrangements for which they are funded by the WICB, the latter is equally responsible for ensuring that that the TTCB, in this case, carries out the mandate of WICB (umbrella body).

You would recall my drawing your attention, when we last met in Trinidad and Tobago, to the problems faced by the Jamaican team prior to its match with Trinidad and Tobago. You promised to look into this matter and have it rectified without delay.

Subsequent events have shown that nothing, to date, has been done with respect to WIPA’s complaint and request. The visiting Windward Islands and Combined Campuses and Colleges regrettably suffered similar treatment.

It is the view of WIPA, and I am sure the WICB and Territorial Board share it, that there can be no compromise in having proper practice facilities for the preparation of teams prior and during matches. The WICB, the Territorial Boards and WIPA have a mutual interest in developing players to international standards.

One of the means of achieving this goal is through adequate preparation. Practice and practice facilities, therefore, become very crucial in this development.

We at WIPA would be pleased to meet once more with the WICB and the if necessary the Territorial Boards, in accordance with the MOU and MSD, to iron out the problems faced in this matter with a view to ensuring that a critical element in players’ preparation is dealt with as a matter of priority and that they are provided with the basic requirements for their continued improvement.