WICB: No Negotiations Unless...
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) says there is no purpose to convening a new round of negotiations with WIPA unless the association is willing to review its position on Clause 5 of the match/tour contract for the upcoming one-day series in Australia.
"The Board has never sought to assume ownership of the individual rights of the players or requested them to forego these rights," the WICB said, insisting that the controversial Clause 5 seeks to protect the interests of the Board, the players and the sponsors.
"Clause 5 of the contract relates to sponsorships and endorsements and includes provisions for the players to request approval of the Board prior to signing personal endorsement contracts as well as provisions for dealing with pre-existing player endorsement contracts," the board said.
"[The] players are required to agree that while representing the West Indies team, they will not do anything that constitutes a player endorsement in relation to a competitor of a WICB Major Sponsor unless he has a pre-existing agreement with such a competitor that was approved in writing by the WICB," the board insisted.
Eight West Indies cricketers, including four members of the 25-man ODI squad, have existing contracts with Cable & Wireless, a direct competitor of Digicel, the WICB's biggest sponsor.
During the last round of negotiations, the WICB said discussions were had as to the basis on which compensation would be paid to players in the context of advertisements and personal appearances on behalf of the major sponsor.
The eight players are captain Brian Lara, vice captain Ronnie Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Omari Banks, Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul and Dwayne Smith.
The board did not address whether it would recognise the Cable & Wireless endorsement deals. During the retainer contract negotiations with WIPA, the board offered to buy out any endorsement that clashed with its major sponsors but there's no such offer on the table now for those eight Cable & Wireless deals.