ST. JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):
NEWLY-APPOINTED WEST Indies Cricket Board Cricket Committee chairman, Clive Lloyd, says he wants the negotiations over retainer contracts for players wrapped up swiftly.
In a WICB release on Saturday, the former West Indies Test captain called on the West Indies Players Association to come to the negotiating table with the "aim of concluding the retainer contracts for our players no later than April 15th".
New WICB president, Ken Gordon had said earlier this year that the retainer contracts for players would have been finalized by January but this never materialized.
He said in February, however, that the WICB was awaiting a response from WIPA to proposals put forward and hoped to have the contracts finalized "in the near future".
The 61-year-old Lloyd, who failed in his bid to become a WICB vice-president last year, will chair a committee comprising several outstanding former West Indies cricketers.
FIVE-POINT MANDATE
Fast bowling legends Michael Holding and Andy Roberts, along with distinguished opening batsman Desmond Haynes and former wicketkeeper Deryck Murray, all comprise the committee that has been issued with a five-point mandate.
The committee has been charged with the responsibility of keeping "all matters related to Caribbean and international cricket under ongoing review and, to offer expert opinion for the guidance of WICB decision making".
It will also be responsible for advising the WICB on the selection and conditions of employment of the coaching staff and to be the senior coach's principal point of contact with the Board.
In addition, it will "keep the performance of the coaching staff under review and guide the WICB accordingly, approve and monitor the effective implementation of the West Indies Cricket Development Programme and work closely with the Win World Cup Committee, the Territorial Boards, the Stanford Twenty20 initiative and, all other events which impact on West Indies Cricket".
Lloyd, a feared batsman and astute captain when he represented West Indies between 1966 and 1985, had made several recommendations recently as it related to the structure of the WICB's cricket committee.
"The cricket committee is an important arm of the board and warrants some attention," Lloyd pointed out.
"It would seem a good proposal therefore, given its pivotal role, for there to be at all times five cricketers of established reputation on it."
Murray, also the president of the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board, has been chosen to head the negotiating committee that will meet with WIPA to finalise terms of the retainer contracts.
