A marathon 14-hour negotiation session between the West Indies
Cricket Board (WICB) and the players' association has ended in a
stalemate with the board refusing to budge on the controversial
Clause 5 in the match and tour contract for the upcoming
triangular one-day tournament in Australia.
The WICB said the issue boiled down to a "fundamental
difference" over the issue of players' individual endorsement deals
and how they clash with the board's major sponsors. The board is
also sticking to the original 10-day deadline for players to accept
the terms of the deal on the table.
Once again WICB bungling has brought West Indies cricket into
crisis, a crisis that could have been managed or even avoided with
only a small amount of foresight.
As sweet a deal as the
Digicel sponsorship is, by leaping into bed with former sponsor
Cable & Wireless' archrival, while knowing full well that it
would place several key players in a difficult position, the WICB
has set up a game of chicken between itself and the players'
association, with the players standing on the road between
them.
Trinidad & Tobago all-rounder Imran Jan has been reinstated
to the national squad in training for the 2005 Carib Beer Cup
Series.
Jan, who was
dropped from the 31-man squad for refusing to comply with
directives from the tour selection panel, has been fined his match
fee for one game and has agreed to apologise to his teammates and
the Trinidad cricket authorities.
It is to the credit of the West Indies cricketers that they have
not been creating the kind of noise that is normally associated
with people who have worked hard but have not been rewarded for
their efforts.
A story on Sunday reported that the West Indies Cricket Board
(WICB) had not paid the players their match fees some of which were
outstanding from as far back as the England tour of the West Indies
in the early part of this year.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has confirmed
our report that it was in breach of its contractual obligations
to pay match fees and sponsorship shares to cricketers.
Faced with a
demand for payment issued by the players' association, the
board said it will start issuing payments on November 17 and
"expects to conclude the process within the next month if not
before."
