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Impasse over player contracts Ramnarine 'shocked and surprised' by ultimatum April 21, 2006
Dinanath Ramnarine, president and chief executive officer of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), has said he was "very shocked and surprised" with an ultimatum from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), stating that the deadline for signing the much-vaunted retainer contracts is today. But he said he is still strongly in support of the finalisation of the retainer contracts, but he must get a mandate from his members first. In a WICB news release late Wednesday night, it was stated that the cricket committee would recommend to the board that if the retainer contracts were not finalised by today, "thereafter the team shall be selected based on those players who make themselves available". The whole scenario caught Ramnarine off guard. "To be honest, I am very shocked and surprised," he said, "but nothing seems to surprise me with the conduct of the WICB, their modus operandi.". Ramnarine said he met with Deryck Murray, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket board president, in his capacity as a WICB Cricket Committee member last Thursday, when issues on the contracts were discussed, and set their next round of negotiations for April 25. Ramnarine added that minutes before receiving news of the WICB ultimatum by email, Murray had contacted him to see if the negotiations could be brought forward to today. He said he told Murray then that he would get back to him about the possibility of meeting today, but he would prefer to have the opportunity to discuss the issues raised by the board with the players, currently attending the West Indies Cricketers Retreat at Hilton in Trinidad, in order to secure a new mandate before returning to the negotiating table. He said he left without committing. "The whole situation is very unfortunate," Ramnarine declared, "Our view is that we are not going to be pressured to sign if we believe it is not in the best interest of players or the players are not better off at the end of the day. "We have to be reasonable about negotiating. First they complain about negotiating in bad faith and now they turn around and do the same thing they are complaining about. Why do we have to go down that road? No one questions the intention of the president if he really wants to have this issue resolved." Ramnarine also claimed he had spoken to people on the committee who were "unaware that this release went out". The WICB Cricket Committee comprises Clive Lloyd (chairman), Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Desmond Haynes, Murray and Ian Bishop. But Ramnarine stressed that in the final analysis the retainer contracts were the way to go for the future development of the game in the region. "We are for retainer contracts because there are serious advantages to it ... but, as it stands right now, the players will be making less money than before with the proposed retainer contracts, but with more obligations to the sponsors and to the board." © Trinidad & Tobago Express
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Stories Ramnarine re-elected as WIPA President West Indies board sets deadline to settle contracts WICB slowing down negotiating process: Ramnarine Players/Umpires Teams |
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