Vin­ode Mam­chan

The West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) has of­fered to take a look at the con­tro­ver­sial spon­sor­ship clause 5.5 in their MOU with the West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (Wipa) and this has been in­clud­ed in the play­ers match/tour con­tracts for the up­com­ing South African tour.

The West In­dies play­ers have been giv­en un­til 5 pm on Tues­day (No­vem­ber 18) to sign the con­tracts to make them­selves el­i­gi­ble for the Test se­ries, which starts on De­cem­ber 17 in South Africa.

T&T Guardian was able to get a copy of the match/tour con­tract and MOU. In­clud­ed in the play­er's con­tracts is a new 5.5 clause which states the fol­low­ing:

5.5. "The Crick­eter's re­mu­ner­a­tion shall be as set out in Ar­ti­cles 5.2 to 5.4 above. In ad­di­tion to such re­mu­ner­a­tion, the Crick­eter shall re­ceive such amount as he may be en­ti­tled to, as an in­ter­na­tion­al play­er, as a re­sult of any in­crease in in­ter­na­tion­al play­ers' share of the spon­sor­ship funds re­ceived by the WICB, as de­ter­mined be­tween WICB and Wipa through re-ne­go­ti­a­tion, ar­bi­tra­tion or some oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate dis­pute res­o­lu­tion process.

"It be­ing agreed and un­der­stood that such ar­bi­tra­tion or oth­er dis­pute res­o­lu­tion process shall (un­less some oth­er pe­ri­od is mu­tu­al­ly agreed up­on by WICB and Wipa) com­mence with­in six (6) months from the date of ex­e­cu­tion of the con­tract or with­in one month of WICB and Wipa fail­ing to agree same through re-ne­go­ti­a­tion, whichev­er is the ear­li­er.

"Up­on such amount (if any) be­ing de­ter­mined as afore­said, the pay­ment will be made the retroac­tive­ly."

The new arrange­ment would put the play­er in a po­si­tion in which he signs and hopes the re-ne­go­ti­a­tion, ar­bi­tra­tion or oth­er dis­pute res­o­lu­tion process goes in his favour.

With the In­dia match/tour con­tract giv­ing the play­ers no share of the spon­sor­ship, they abort­ed the tour, af­ter ask­ing the WICB to re-ne­go­ti­ate the clause.

Now they are be­ing asked to tour South Africa with the knowl­edge that the clause will be looked at it by the WICB and their rep­re­sen­ta­tive body, the West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (Wipa.

T&T Guardian un­der­stands that most of the play­ers have passed on their con­tracts to their le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tives just for fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion be­fore putting pen to pa­per.