WICB, WIPA Blame Game Escalates

It seems there's no end in sight to the back-and-forth blame game between the West Indies Cricket (WICB) and the player's association.

On Wednesday, a Caribbean Media Corporation report was published in newspapers throughout the region with the headline: "WIPA fails to meet WICB deadline." In the report, WICB chief executive Roger Brathwaite is quoted as saying WIPA has not yet provided a response to its latest proposal.

By mid-afternoon, WIPA issued a press release to react to the CMC report and accuse the board of undermining the integrity of the players.

"WIPA is very concerned about reports appearing in the media today under the headline ?WIPA fails to meet WICB deadline? and wishes to assert that on the contrary, WIPA has responded to WICB in the time frame it had promised to," said WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine.

The release continued: "In reviewing the status of the negotiations it should be pointed out that WIPA submitted a counter proposal to the WICB on February 19th. Almost one week later, the WICB responded to this on February 24th with its own counter proposal and gave WIPA a deadline of February 25th to respond. One Day."

Ramnaraine said he advised the WICB that it would not be possible for WIPA to reply in such a short time frame for two reasons. Firstly, WIPA?s legal representatives were not immediately available to give their advice on the matter and, secondly, because WIPA would need to get its member?s consensus on the revised offer in the WICB?s proposal.

"Because the members reside in islands across the Caribbean it would not be possible to get feedback from all of them in time. The President of WIPA therefore advised the WICB that, recognizing the urgency of the negotiations, the WICB would have WIPA?s reply by March 2nd. WIPA has kept to its promise and submitted its reply to the WICB earlier today," he added.

"At no time did WIPA give the WICB the undertaking to provide a reply by February 25th. The article?s rush to judgement in labeling this as some failure on WIPA?s part, is regrettable and a continuation of deliberate attempts to undermine the integrity of WIPA and its members."