WICB to WIPA: 'Prove Your Legitimacy'

On the eve of the inaugural Carib Beer Cup playoffs, there is a storm brewing around the pay structure for the region's first class cricketers and the fight is threatening to get nasty.

Following another last-minute threat of industrial action by the players' association, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) lashed back, hinting strongly that WIPA does not represent all the players participating in the senior domestic competitions.

"The facts are that in January this year, the WICB asked the WIPA to support their claim of representing all of the players participating in senior domestic competitions with documentation showing their membership of WIPA and consent to be bound by the organization's negotiations," the board said in a statement.

The WICB said acting CEO Roger Brathwaite again asked WIPA on March 19 to provide documentation that it represented all the players, arguing that it was a "prerequisite" for negotiations on fees for the first class competition but, to date, the association had not provided a response.

"In keeping with standard industrial relations procedure, this documentation was to be a requisite for negotiation with WIPA on fees for the senior domestic competitions, but there has been no response to this request," the board argued.

To date, the board said WIPA has only been recognised as the representative for the players for international competitions, a stance that suggests WIPA should only speak for Test and ODI players and not all first class cricketers in the Caribbean.

While the board's posturing could potentially be viewed as "union busting," the fact is that WIPA is not a legal body that represents all the players. The association does not have dues-paying members and has operated in a leadership vacuum ever since former Test player David Holford stepped down as WIPA chief executive last year.

Now, WIPA's public statements come from the mouth of Trinidadian leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine with behind-the-scenes nudging from former West Indies players Roland Holder and Phil Simmons. Reon King and Wavell Hinds, two players who have not commanded a place in the senior team, are the other executive members.

Unless WIPA proves it fully represents the majority of players in the region, the board's position is that it can't legally pursue industrial action but, like the pre-World Cup brouhaha over the share of sponsorship money from the LNM Group, the WICB could find itself in a public relations nightmare if the players refuse to wear the Carib Cup logo in the post-season games, which get cracking on April 3.

Strapped for cash, the board has had problems in the past securing sponsors for its tournaments and, even when a sponsor is found, sponsors like Red Stripe routinely call the shots and demand that the crucial games be played only in Jamaica, where the company has its headquarters.

Now, the board is caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side, it does not want to draw the ire of players heading into a Test series against Australia but it cannot be seen as a weak organisation, capitulating to every threat from the players' association.

Last month, the board said it increased the fees paid to players in senior domestic competitions. The pay raise was done unilaterally as a measure of "good faith", a senior WICB official told CaribbeanCricket.com.

Players without international experience were given an increase of 20 per cent and players with international experience were given an increase of 10 per cent, starting with the Carib Beer competition. On average, the WICB source said increase would bump up the pay to about US$300 per match.

In all the WICB said it would be shelling out more than US$250,000 in fees for the Carib Beer competition.

The board criticised public comments from WIPA president Ramnarine that the threat of industrial action was necessary because the board "waited to the last minute" to discuss the pay scale situation.

"The WICB, in good faith, almost a month ago, proposed a meeting between the two parties for Thursday, March 27, in Barbados immediately upon Brathwaite?s return to the Caribbean from South Africa, where he was representing the WICB at ICC meetings and the World Cup. We still intend holding that meeting with the WIPA," the board said.