Dessie Haynes is New WIPA Secretary

Former West Indies batting great Desmond Haynes will replace Roland Holder as secretary of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).

Haynes' appointment took effect on March 1st and comes in the midst of a nasty contract dispute between the players and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over private endorsement rights. Interestingly, Haynes was the last player to challenge the WICB with a right-to-work lawsuit.

The case was recently settled in Haynes' favour.

Haynes, a former Senator in the Barbados government, currently serves as chairman of the National Sports Council in his native Barbados.

Ever since his career ended in controversial circumstances in 1994, Haynes has maintained close ties with WIPA. He was the guest speaker at the association's awards ceremony in 1994 where he openly chastised the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for standing by and twiddling its thumbs while West Indies cricket suffers.

Haynes takes over from countryman Roland Holder who resigned as WIPA secretary last December and complained about being marginalised from key decisions. However, as WIPA sources explained, Holder's membership on the executive of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and his new job as Barbados team manager represented a conflict-of-interest that caused problems.

With Haynes aboard, WIPA gets a strong personality to help deflect widespread criticisms that its approach to dealing with the WICB has been overly confrontational. Haynes is beloved and highly respected around the Caribbean.

Along with Gordon Greenidge, Haynes was part of the most successful opening partnership in the history of West Indies cricket.

In 116 Tests between 1978 and 1994, Haynes scored 7,487 runs (avg. 42.29) with 18 centuries. He also appeared in 238 ODIs, scoring 8,648 runs with 17 tons (avg. 41.37).