Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
RAMNARINE
THE WEST Indies Players' Association (WIPA) yesterday stated it was "disgusted" by the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) decision to go ahead with the tour of Sri Lanka.
WIPA announced its contempt for the move in an eight-page, 18-point release sent to the media.
One of the association's major concerns cited in the letter was the fact that the WICB made its decision to select another group of players while still in negotiations with the WIPA.
NO CONTACT POSSIBLE
According to the strongly-worded release signed by the association's president and CEO, Dinanath Ramnarine, it was only a day before the decision that the WIPA had written to the WICB saying: "It is WIPA's view that the correspondence between us reveals substantial agreement between the WICB and WIPA on the way forward to resolving the various issues that had been in dispute".
The WIPA release then went on to claim that no contact between itself and WICB CEO Roger Brathwaite was possible on June 30 (the day the board named the new squad) and that it had tried on a number of occasions to ensure that Brathwaite made contact with the organisation.
Furthermore, the letter went on to indicate that the WICB brought another aspect to the negotiations when its correspondences made no reference to the exclusion of the Digicel agreement, which the WIPA claims was in contradiction to statements made by Brathwaite.
The new position of the WICB, according to WIPA, meant that a new look had to be taken at the negotiations, but when it tried to inform the board of that, it was then informed of the decision to use the West Indies 'A' team that was already in Sri Lanka.
According to WIPA, that decision indicated the unilateral break-off of negotiations by the WICB and that the board had intended to use the 'A' team as a "bargaining chip".
NEGOTIATIONS
WIPA further went on to charge that the presence of West Indies team manager Tony Howard in Sri Lanka from as early as June 26 was a clear indication that the WICB intended to negotiate in 'bad faith'.
The charges against Brathwaite and the WICB seemed endless as the WIPA went on to express dismay at the unwavering attitude of the WICB and also bordered on calling the board deceitful when it pointed out that it had only unveiled the details of the Digicel sponsorship after the decision to use the 'A' team players had been made.
The WIPA also slammed claims from the WICB that it had acted in an untimely manner but indicated it would still be willing to negotiate through the process of mediation and then through arbitration.
Ramnarine ended the terse letter with the promise that his organisation's proposals would be communicated to the CARICOM prime ministers who had determined that they would intervene in the impasse.
Efforts to contact Brathwaite or other WICB officials yesterday proved fruitless.
