Holder: 'I Learnt of Dispute from Media'

Outgoing Secretary of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) said on a radio sports programme here that he learnt about the disgruntlement over the Australia tour contracts in the newspapers.

That disagreement has lead to the current impasse between the West Indies Cricket Board and WIPA, and the subsequent intervention by Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell to try and quell the dispute.

Holder, speaking to former West Indies player Maurice Foster Tuesday on the Scoreboard radio programe, said that one of the reasons for his resignation, was the increasing lack of consultation among the association's executive members. The former West Indies batsman said that he read about both the dispute and the latest bombshell about the US$500,000 demand for appearance fees, in the newspapers.

He went on to state some other reasons for his resignation which included the adversarial style of WIPA which he said seems to want to hold people to ransom, and that the association is being operated more like a trade union.

Holder said these were not the aims of WIPA when he first got involved in the 1990s. Having recently been appointed Manager of the Barbados team for the Carib Beer series, Holder also said that a lack of time was another factor which lead him to give up the post of Secretary from 1 January 2005.

When asked by Foster to explain the current issue, Holder replied "I am not certain. I have not been involved at any stage. I read about it in the papers." In response to the question "isn't this a dictatorial style?" (by WIPA President Dinanath Ramnarine), Holder said "it could be. I don't know if he is consulting with the other members. I know he is consulting with at least one other member of the executive."

Holder also was puzzled that an executive of WIPA who was one of the members of the recent camp in Barbados, was one of those who signed the original documents sent prior to the commencement of the camp. These are the same documents which WIPA and the WICB are at loggerheads over.

The current executive members of WIPA are:

Dinanath Ramnarine ? President/CEO
Wavell Hinds ? Vice President
Roland Holder ? Secretary
Phil Simmons ? Treasurer
Reon King ? Asst Secretary/Treasurer