Mediation talks between West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to end the latest impasse between the two organizations concluded yesterday without an agreement being reached.
Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal, who was appointed mediator on July 21, expressed disappointment at the outcome.
“It was another bad day for West Indies cricket which, without fundamental changes, is now likely to deteriorate further,” Ramphal stated in a release from CARICOM.
And, CARICOM Chairman and president of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo last evening expressed disappointment with the outcome.
“I am disappointed to learn of the failure of the Board and WIPA to reach agreement in the cricket Mediation,” Jagdeo stated in a statement issued to the media.
Jagdeo, however, said that he was not altogether surprised by the outcome.
“When the Mediation under Sir Shridath Ramphal was agreed upon with me on 21 July 2009, it was in context in which WIPA made all their players available and I understand this to be basis of a return to normalcy in team selection,” he stated.
He added that Board members did not disclose to him, at the meeting, or to WIPA that the board had already selected a ‘B’ Team for the Champions Trophy in South Africa later this month.
“The President later apologized for the omission; but the damage had been done; the Mediation was weakened from the start.
“Now it seems that the Mediation has been the victim of the same spirit of Board insistence on getting its own way whatever the consequences for our cricket. CARICOM governments will have to consider what next to do to save West Indies cricket, and West Indians, everywhere, from still further humiliation,” Jagdeo stated.
Ramphal, who was optimistic that talks would have been successful after the first round of talks earlier in August, stated that he was again disappointed when “one Party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other.”
The prominent Caribbean jurist explained that 24 hours before before the end, it was his belief that agreement between the Board and WIPA was at hand; and that he had actually invoked assistance of various kinds to make implementation of the agreement feasible.
He urged followers of West Indies cricket not to despair.
“Cricket,” said Ramphal, “is in our regional genes; it cannot be lost.”
