Retainer List Expanded; Bravo In

Under pressure from ICC/FICA, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has backtracked on its decision to remove Dwayne Bravo from the list of players to get retainer contracts.

According to sources close to the WICB, Bravo was re-added to the list, which has now been expanded to include batsmen Daren Ganga and Runako Morton.

The 10-man list, which was signed off by the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) last week, was finalised after representatives from ICC/FICA told the WICB that Bravo's private endorsement with bMobile (a competitor of Digicel) could not stop him from getting a retainer contract.

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;

The WICB originally identified Bravo in list of 8 players to get an annual retainer but his name was removed because of his ties to bMobile, which is co-owned by former team sponsor Cable & Wireless.

That decision prompted a complaint from WIPA that the board was in violation of its agreements and the issue was again sent back to ICC/FICA for guidance. Just recently, ICC/FICA told the WICB that it could not deny Bravo a retainer because of his bMobile deal because the player is entitled to that pre-existing contract.

Ganga also has a private endorsement deal with bMobile that will remain in effect while he is contracted to the WICB.

According to the WICB source, the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed between the WICB and WIPA calls for a "minimum of 10 players" to be offered retainers. Once the MoU was signed recently, the board was forced to expand the list to include Ganga and Morton.

This is the third time the WICB has challenged -- and lost -- the issue over whether players are entitled to private endorsements deals, even with a competitor of its major sponsor.

Back in December 2005, Caricom arbitrator Judge Adrian Saunders ruled that there is indeed a distinction between endorsements players can sign in their private capacity and as a member of the West Indies team but the WICB ignored that ruling and dropped six players with C&W endorsements (Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Rampaul, Fidel Edwards and Dwayne Smith).

Brian Lara, a C&W endorser, withdrew in solidarity with the six and a major quarrel erupted and forced a below-strength side to tour Sri Lanka.

A source said the board may now be forced to renegotiate its sponsorship deal with Digicel because that contract calls for the WICB to only pick "clean" players in the West Indies team.

"This is a big, big loss for the board and it's only the beginning. How will Digicel react to this? That's another big fight that's brewing," the source added.

The new list of players to be offered retainers now reads:

1. Brian Lara
2. Shiv Chanderpaul
3. Ramnaresh Sarwan
4. Chris Gayle
5. Fidel Edwards
6. Corey Collymore
7. Dwayne Bravo
8. Denesh Ramdin
9. Runako Morton
10. Daren Ganga