BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – A West Indies Cricket Board director has accused CARICOM chairman, Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and renowned Caribbean diplomat Sir Shridath Ramphal, of compromising any future solution to the ongoing regional cricket impasse.
Conde Riley, one of Barbados’ two representatives on the WICB, blasted both Jagdeo and Sir Shridath for comments they made following the announcement earlier this week that talks had collapsed in the mediation process between the Board and the West Indies Players Association.
A first vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association, Riley said the statements had conveyed the idea that the WICB had been at fault for the breakdown in talks.
“As I recall, these things [coming out of the mediation] were supposed to be confidential. The statements that have come out over the last 48 hours have breached the confidentialities of the mediation process and I daresay, compromised any arbitration process that may take place in the future,” Riley told a media conference at Kensington Oval on Friday.
“A mediation is supposed to bring the two warring or feuding parties together in a spirit of compromise but with the statements that have come out over the last 48 hours, I cannot see how an arbitration that will take place in the future will not be compromised based on these statements. Fingers have been pointed at the WICB.”
In a statement earlier this week, Sir Shridath said that he believed an agreement was possible 24 hours before the mediation ended, but said “all that changed dramatically when one party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other.”
Jagdeo also criticized the WICB on Wednesday blaming the Board for the failed talks he had helped to broker in Georgetown last month.
“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,” the Guyana leader said.
Jagdeo said he believed the WICB prejudiced the mediation efforts from the start by not disclosing they had already selected a Champions Trophy squad without the top flight players.
“The members of the Board did not disclose to me or to WIPA that the Board had already selected a ‘B” team for the Champions Trophy in South Africa,” Jagdeo added.
“The President (Julian Hunte) later apologised for the omission; but the damage had been done; the mediation was weakened from the start.”
Riley, however, dismissed these assertions contending that while the leading players had made themselves available following the Bangladesh series, they had not signed the International Cricket Council’s squad terms contracts which would have made them eligible for selection.
“I have heard a lot being said by the mediator [and] now President Jagdeo and I thought that these facts needed to be put before the people of Barbados and the Caribbean fairly and squarely for them to judge,” said Riley, who also announced he had tendered his resignation from the Board.
“There was no ‘B’ team picked before the mediation started, there was nothing like that. As a result of [WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine) and WIPA not returning those contracts the players became ineligible. Those players who said they were available, that was lip service.”
He added: “… about the president (Hunte) apologizing about an omission. The omission he may have meant was omitting to point out that these guys did not sign these ICC squad terms contracts.”
Pointing to the document that supposedly derailed the mediation process, Riley said it had simply been a summary of what had taken place in the mediation up to that point.
“My position is – and I spoke the president this morning and I said to him – if cricket really belongs to the people, this particular position that was taken by the negotiators on behalf of the West Indies Cricket Board that was supposed to be brand new that caused the mediation to come to an end, should be publicized because the negotiator and the president of Guyana have taken off the gloves. There’s nothing confidential anymore,” said Riley, who made a copy of the document available to the media.
“I believe that that document which was presented by our negotiators to Sir Shridath and Mr Ramnarine when he returned to the negotiating table [after a short holiday], is a mere summary of what had taken place up to that point.”
Riley said he felt the need to resign since he had breached WICB protocol in making the document available to the public.
