Vin­ode Mam­chan

Pres­i­dent of the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) Ju­lian Hunte says West In­dies crick­et will not be held to ran­som and the cur­rent im­passe be­tween the WICB and the West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA) must come to an end. The WICB and Wipa are at it yet again, and this time the first team play­ers se­lect­ed have re­fused to take the field for the cur­rent Test against Bangladesh and a sec­ond string team is be­ing used. Wipa is claim­ing that the se­nior play­ers have com­plet­ed four tours with­out any con­tracts and they must put an end to this. Hunte said the WICB was will­ing to of­fer the play­ers their con­tracts, but they re­fused it.

He said, "We have been try­ing to ne­go­ti­ate with Wipa and some­how we can­not get them be­tween se­ries to ne­go­ti­ate. "Be­fore a se­ries starts there would be a flur­ry of ac­tiv­i­ty and then they would want to meet to ne­go­ti­ate. This is not good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions prac­tice and we are go­ing to put a stop to this," Hunte added, "When I took up the po­si­tion as pres­i­dent, I in­her­it­ed these prob­lems with Wipa, but I can as­sure you that I am not go­ing to leave it for any­one who re­places me to deal with," he said.

Hunte added, "This must come to a head and it must stop. This is dam­ag­ing to West In­dies crick­et and these prob­lems be­fore tours and dur­ing tours must be elim­i­nat­ed." Hunte said the Board would host a meet­ing this week­end in St Vin­cent when it would be briefed by the chair­man of the ne­go­ti­at­ing com­mit­tee Dave Cameron. "We are hav­ing a meet­ing this week­end and we would be briefed by the chair of the ne­go­ti­at­ing com­mit­tee and then we would an­nounce our next move," he said.

Gor­don ac­cepts some blame for cur­rent cri­sis

T&T's Ken Gor­don who served as pres­i­dent of the Wicb for a two-year pe­ri­od pri­or to Hunte tak­ing up the po­si­tion said the board must stick to their guns if they feel they are right. "When the board meets and they think that they are right in the sit­u­a­tion and they make a de­ci­sion, they must stand by it no mat­ter what. Gor­don made his com­ments on TV-6 Morn­ing Edi­tion Show. He said at the end of the day it is the WICB that has them­selves in this po­si­tion be­cause they should have been stronger in deal­ing with sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions be­fore.

"The board should have been stronger in their deal­ings with Wipa in the past. I my­self must shoul­der the blame for some of this be­cause I was pres­i­dent of the WICB for two years and did not change it. "The board has to make a de­ci­sion and tell Wipa no, and stick to it. I can­not say who is right or wrong in this case be­cause I have not been fol­low­ing the lat­est bat­tle." Gor­don said, "Our play­ers are among the best paid in the world and yet they are one of the worst play­ing Test teams. I think that this is ir­ra­tional and this must not be al­lowed to con­tin­ue by the present ad­min­is­tra­tion. "If they think that Wipa's ask­ing too much, then they must not change their po­si­tion and af­ter play­ers re­alise that time is go­ing on and they are not play­ing, they would un­der­stand the re­al­i­ty and come back to play."

Bish­op: Cri­sis a ma­jor em­bar­rass­ment

For­mer West In­dies fast bowler Ian Bish­op said when he learnt of the present im­passe he felt sick in the stom­ach. "It made me sick in the tum­my. This en­tire thing is very em­bar­rass­ing for the en­tire re­gion be­cause we are on the world stage. "I can­not say who is right or wrong in this sit­u­a­tion be­cause I don't sit down at board meet­ings, but it is very em­bar­rass­ing." Bish­op who does com­men­tary for Sky Tele­vi­sion said he was amazed by the fact that prob­lems like these crop up time and time again.

"I can­not un­der­stand why peo­ple can­not get to­geth­er and get the prob­lems cor­rect­ed. While every­one blames the oth­er, crick­et is suf­fer­ing in the re­gion and will be the on­ly los­er on the day."