West Indies cricket board close to solving dispute with players over pay

Port of Spain: WICB president Dave Cameron might have sounded defiant after the board meeting last week but it is being reported now that the members have forged an agreement to end the players’ pay dispute that led to the West Indies team’s abrupt pull-out from the India tour.

It is learnt that the WICB and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) will now renegotiate the cricketers’ contracts, with the players now having a say in payment matters.

Also the WIPA chief Wavell Hinds will continue to represent the players’ interests. Cameron, though, is still critical of the players’ behaviour, calling it irresponsible on his twitter handle.

“They’ve criticised you. They’ve doubted you. They’ve lied on you. They’ve done all they can do, but one thing they can’t do is stop you,” he tweeted after the meeting.

The BCCI has served the WICB a claim of Rs 250 crore (42 million USD) for a loss of revenue for the withdrawal of the team after the fourth ODI on October 17, which left Cameron and company red faced.

In an e-mail to Cameron, captain Dwayne Bravo, spokesman for the players in India, charged that WICB’s failure to heed their appeal and to find a resolution to the payment-structure dispute was a “grave injustice”.

Cameron openly slammed the act on his Facebook page, “This feels like an act of terrorism. You destroy a region’s heritage over an internal dispute. You don’t threaten the offender as yet. Unbelievable.”

There have been fears in South Africa that the West Indies would not come this December, or that officials would have to send a second-string side shorn of crowd-pullers like Chris Gayle.

But the latest developments have brightened hope for West Indies players to make amends and return to the cricket field with full gusto.

PTI