PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - Trouble is again brewing over players' contract ahead of the West Indies' cricket tour of Sri Lanka that starts next month.

RAMNARINE... the Board is influenced by its reluctance to place the Digicel contract under scrutiny

The West Indies Players' Association has expressed disappointment over the breakdown of negotiations on Friday with the West Indies Cricket Board concerning players' match/tour contracts.

The breakdown took place following a meeting between WICB and WIPA officials, as well as Justice Adrian Saunders, who was appointed by Grenada's Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, chairman of the CARICOM sub-committee on cricket, to help mediate the ongoing dispute over players' contracts.

West Indies are set to face Sri Lanka in two Tests, before tackling the hosts and India in a three-way limited-overs international competition.

"The WICB disagreed with WIPA's proposal and stated that they would have to first seek the agreement of its major sponsor, Digicel," remarked WIPA Executive President Dinanath Ramnarine in a news release.

"WIPA is disappointed by this turn of events as we firmly believe that having regard to the differences between parties the most appropriate solution would be for a process of mediation and adjudication.

"It is our view that the Board's position continues to be influenced by it not wishing to have the Digicel contract subjected to scrutiny."

The WICB team, comprising chief executive Roger Brathwaite and attorney-at-law Joyce Kentish, did not attend Friday's meeting at the Cascadia Hotel just outside the capital, but participated via teleconference.

WIPA was represented by Ramnarine, as well as prominent Barbadian attorneys-at-law Donna Symmonds and Leslie Haynes.

"Having regard to the fact that there were differences in the parties' proposals with respect to the Adjudicator's terms of reference, Justice Saunders proposed that the parties meet urgently in mediation," Ramnarine said.

"WIPA agreed, but articulated to Justice Saunders the ongoing difficulty in arriving at a negotiated agreement on Clause 5 of the Match/Tour Contract, and proposed in the event the mediation failed to immediately resolve that particular issue, then Clause 5 should be submitted to Justice Saunders for his binding adjudication with regard to the Sri Lankan tour only."

Ramnarine noted that legal counsel had advised that Clause 5, as is presently drafted, does not sufficiently protect the individual property rights of the players in keeping with Justice Saunders' ruling earlier this year.

Justice Saunders had ruled that players' endorsements of products that rivalled the WICB's did not contravene the Match/Tour Contract.

WICB and WIPA have been trying with little success for close to two years to hammer out a Retainer Contract.
The sticking point has been the contentious Clause 5 that governs players' personal endorsements.

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