For­mer West In­dies Play­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (WIPA) pres­i­dent Di­nanath Ram­nar­ine had some harsh words for mem­bers of the T&T Crick­et Board (T&TCB), say­ing the lo­cal board is not prac­tic­ing prop­er gov­er­nance and con­tra­dict­ing them­selves.

The T&TCB in a press re­lease yes­ter­day (In to­day's T&T Guardian) stat­ed the board is con­demn­ing, in the strongest pos­si­ble man­ner, the re­cent ac­tions of the West In­di­an crick­eters who abort­ed their tour of In­dia. Led by One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al cap­tain Dwayne Bra­vo, the West In­dies play­ers left In­dia be­cause of salary dis­putes.

Ram­nar­ine is up­set that T&TCB mem­bers Az­im Bas­sarath and Bal­dath Ma­habir, who both par­tic­i­pat­ed in a West In­dies Crick­et Board emer­gency meet­ing in Bar­ba­dos last week, are now speak­ing out against the West In­dies play­ers. On Sat­ur­day at the T&TCB an­nu­al gen­er­al meet­ing at the Al­loy Lequay Ad­min­is­tra­tive Cen­tre at Bal­main, Cou­va, Ram­nar­ine was the on­ly per­son to dis­agree with the stand tak­en by the T&TCB against the play­ers.

In the meet­ing in Bar­ba­dos, the WICB de­cid­ed to cre­ate a Task Force to ad­dress the is­sue re­gard­ing the im­passe be­tween the play­ers, WIPA and the WICB, which led to the play­ers aban­don­ing the In­dia tour two weeks ago, and this was agreed by both Bas­sarath and Ma­habir, the T&TCB rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Ram­nar­ine said that the T&TCB should not take sides be­fore know­ing all the facts. "At the end of the day, it would have been un­fair to make con­dem­na­tion on one side with­out the facts sur­round­ing the In­dia tour be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed and a fi­nal de­ter­mi­na­tion ar­rived at by the WICB".

These two di­rec­tors (Bas­sarath and Ma­habir) took part in the WICB meet­ing and are now con­demn­ing the play­ers with­out the facts. Why did they not state their po­si­tion then to the WICB di­rec­tors at the meet­ing."

The for­mer WIPA pres­i­dent added that the T&TCB is not fol­low­ing the prop­er pro­ce­dure. "For them to say this now, it shows a lack of due process and good gov­er­nance. This is why we are in this po­si­tion, this is a lack of lead­er­ship. These de­ci­sions are based on emo­tions and the idea of the task force is to un­der­stand what the facts are."