Report: WICB Declined ICC Mediation

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has rebuffed approaches by the ICC to mediate in the dispute with the players' association on at least three occasions, Wisden Cricinfo reported Friday.

A source close to the discussions between the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) and the West Indies board (WICB) said that WIPA had raised the possibility of an ICC intervention with Richard Bevan and Tim May of FICA, the international players union, and Bevan then spoke to the ICC.

The Web site said that Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive, then had conversations with senior WICB officials and offered to set up a three-man panel of independent figures selected by the ICC and FICA in a bid to find a solution.

The WICB are reported to have declined the offer.

The board has resisted the players' association call for full arbitration on all disputed matters, including the controversial master sponsorship deal with Digicel, insisting instead on a process that will first include mediation.

CaribbeanCricket.com has learned that the WICB does not want Justice Adrian Saunders to be part of any future mediation process. Internally, sources say the WICB feels it was "burned" by Saunders' ruling on Clause 1K, which makes it clear that players do not need permission to ink endorsement deals, provided those endorsements are done in their private capacity only.