PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:ON THE eve of the selection of the final squad for the first Digicel Test match between West Indies and South Africa, the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) has repeated its call on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to restore the eligibility of the players it disqualified from selection for the series opener.
The WICB ruled six players ineligible based on their personal contracts with Cable & Wireless, direct telecommunications competitors of current team sponsors Digicel.
Regular team captain Brian Lara, also contracted to Cable & Wireless but cleared to play because his contract was 'pre-existing', was also excluded because in solidarity with the barred players he had given a 'non-committal response' to an invitation to join the squad.
LEGAL ISSUES
But WIPA issued a release a week ago, calling on the WICB to reinstate the players while the legal issues of the impasse are thrashed out.
And late yesterday, WIPA repeated its call, in a letter addressed to the WICB's Chief Executive Officer Roger Brathwaite and copied to the media, to restore eligibility to the players and allow the "best team" to be picked.
WIPA stated in its release that -- on the advice of its attorneys it believes the players' Cable & Wireless contracts could co-exist with the Digicel sponsorship and urged the WICB to rethink its decision to rule out the six players Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Dwayne Smith.
WIPA's March 20 release had urged the board to maintain the "status quo achieved for the VB series in Australia in December 2004" that allowed that tour squad to be picked with all players eligible.
WIPA asserted its position yesterday evening, saying it is convinced there is no commercial conflict that should bar the players from being eligible.
NO PLAYER OBLIGATIONS
"We have reviewed the Draft Match/Tour Contract for the Home Series submitted to the players by the Board and our lawyers have advised us that, as was the case for the VB Series, there are no player obligations stated herein that the seven players with individual endorsement contracts with Cable and Wireless would not be able to fulfill," WIPA's release stated.
"We therefore wish to state that in fact there is nothing standing in the way of the Board considering for selection the seven players with Cable and Wireless contracts. We therefore once again call on the WICB to so consider these players," WIPA stated.
A West Indies 12-man squad should be named today or early tomorrow following the completion of a short preparation camp in Barbados.
South Africa's squad arrived in the Caribbean last Thursday, a week ahead of the first Test match in Guyana on Thursday.
