PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Regional players’ union WIPA claimed Wednesday that West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive officer Ernest Hilaire had misrepresented the facts about the payment of a US$450,000-settlement to players.

This is the response from WIPA to Hilaire’s revelation earlier this week that the regional governing body had avoided another possible showdown with the players’ body over the settlement, which was part of the mediation exercise between the two sides last year.

The details of the dispute were disclosed to the media last week, when a West Indies player anonymously circulated a confidential letter from Hilaire to the players.

Hilaire wrote to the players to explain that the WICB strongly disagreed with WIPA’s demand that the money be paid directly to the organisation, but the players’ association indicated in a media release that they never demanded anything.

“The agreement was between the WICB and WIPA, and WIPA as the other party requested, (not demanded) the agreed payment,” the players’ body said in a media release. “It was, therefore, not a matter of a claim to be deemed justifiable or otherwise by the WICB.”

WIPA added: “Contrary to Hilaire’s view, the players are not employees of the WICB, and especially were not even capable of being viewed as such as at the time the New York Agreement (NYA) was signed, since the players had not been contracted.

“Even after being contracted, they are not employees of the WICB. The WICB had no basis for refusing to pay the money to WIPA, but it did,” the release continued.

WIPA confirmed that the WICB requested the organisation to submit a list of the names of players to whom payments should be made.

Hilaire had contended that the names of several players, who were affected by the grievances, had not been included, and so the battle lines were drawn.