EXCLUSIVE: Bravo Removed from Retainer List

Dwayne Bravo's private endorsement deal with bMobile has cost him a retainer contract with the West Indies team.

The 22-year-old all-rounder was in the original list of eight players identified for an annual retainer but the WICB has decided that his ties to bMobile, a company part-owned by Cable & Wireless, will conflict with its major sponsor Digicel.

It is understood that Digicel is applying pressure on the WICB to only offer contracts to "clean players" and has even withheld payments from the board. Bravo's agent, Tim Nafziger, has already written to the board to protest direct pressure being applied to the cricketer by a Digicel official in Trinidad & Tobago.

"I guess we're back to square one," said a WICB official late Thursday night. "We spent nearly two difficult years on this issue and now it looks like this will derail everything."

This is sure to upset the waters with WIPA because the players' association believes that the ICC/FICA ruling has effectively settled the issue and cleared the way for players to sign private endorsements, even with a competitor.

The applicable section of the ICC/FICA ruling, which was accepted by the WICB, WIPA and Digicel, reads:

(f) WICB acknowledges that the Player may have and shall be entitled to fulfil obligations under pre-existing Player Endorsement Contracts which:

(1) pre-date this Contract, and are set out in Item 5 of the Schedule and which were:

A) entered into whilst not contracted to WICB;

In Bravo's case, his bMobile contract clearly predates the retainer (which has still not yet been offered to any player).

One WICB director who disagreed with the board's decision to remove Bravo from the list told CaribbeanCricket.com that the cricketer "is being victimised for something that he's legally entitled to do."

The WICB got legal advice on the issue and is contending that Bravo's contract did not predate its sponsorship contract with Digicel, which is bMobile's direct competitor. "Brian's [Lara] contract predates the Digicel deal so that one is allowed but, in Bravo's case, it's a problem because it doesn't take effect until October but it has already been pre-signed," the source explained.

"The board is free to pick or not pick any player for a retainer. There is nothing set in stone that this player or that player must be picked," the source said.

The players' association is expected to contend that this is a major breach of its agreements, which allow any player to sign with any private sponsor once he is not contracted to the WICB.

Another contentious issue is that the agreed-upon MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) calls for a "minimum of 10 players" to be contracted but the WICB has unilaterally decided it will offer deals to 8 players.

WIPA has not yet seen the criteria used to pick the players to be retained and is worried that the process will not be fair and transparent. The WICB's chief negotiator Deryck Murray has agreed to provide WIPA with the criteria used, the number of retained players and the categories in which they will be placed.

This was agreed prior to the third Test against India but, to date, WIPA has not received any documentation from the board.

For example, Ramnaresh Sarwan has been rated in a higher category than Shivnarine Chanderpaul although Chanderpaul is considered a senior, more experienced player with a superior batting record.

These are the kinds of discrepancies that will further delay the implementation of the retainers because WIPA wants to be sure that the rankings are fair, consistent and transparent.