Already embroiled in a bitter dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) is now exchanging words with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) over retainer contracts for 33 players ahead of the Champions League Twenty20 series in India October 8 to 23.
WIPA president/chief executive, Dinanath Ramnarine, has accused the TTCB of misleading the public on the issue after a meeting between the two parties in Port-of-Spain on Tuesday.
He accused the TTCB of attempting to paint the players and the WIPA in a negative light in an interview with its chief executive Forbes Persaud published in one daily newspaper.
As Stanford 20/20 champions in 2008, Trinidad and Tobago are the West Indies representatives in the Champions League that also features top Twenty20 teams from India, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England.
There was a similar disagreement between the two organisations just prior to Trinidad and Tobago’s participation in the Stanford SuperSeries in Antigua last October. The TTCB actually named a replacement squad before the matter was resolved and the original team reinstated. Trinidad and Tobago beat English champions, Middlesex, to secure the US$450,000 prize.
In the latest issue, Ramnarine contended there were a number of “inaccuracies and misleading statements” in statements by Persaud which he claimed “clearly give the impression to an unsuspecting public that both the Trinidad and Tobago players and WIPA have been dilatory in the non-signing of the contracts by the players.”
Persaud said the contracts would have come into effect from January 2009 had the players signed off on them. But, he added, the players indicated they wanted WIPA to sanction them before they signed.
“We then waited and did not receive any signed contracts,” he said. “We then decided to meet with the 33 players in early July to address the matter and we were told that they are still waiting on direction from WIPA.”
Persaud noted that his board set a deadline of July 15 for players to sign the contracts as it needed to start preparing the team for the Champions League that runs from October 8 to 23.
In addition, Persaud said, the TTCB had to submit names of a preliminary squad 20 to the Champions League committee by August 15 and the final 15 by September 7.
“That (July 15) deadline has passed and we are hoping that we can get the players to sign as time is running out,” he said. “When we met with Ramnarine (on Tuesday), he told us that he had some concerns with the contracts and needed some changes.”
Ramnarine claimed that the TTCB offered only letters of intent to 33 players last December, and not retainer contracts. These, he said, were only offered “during the first week of July this year.”
