– GCA President Mentore
‘My understanding of arbitration is to reach a winning solution for everyone and when I see WIPA operating as if they won arbitration talks I do not see it as a plus but a negative’
By Marlon Munroe
In resolving the dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) West Indies cricket not the WICB nor the WIPA should be the winner.
So says president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) Alfred Mentore.
The former Guyana Under-19 player yesterday weighed in on the bitter dispute between the WICB and the WIPA claiming that among other things, some of the issues should not have been brought into the public domain.
According to Mentore, the two bodies are only airing their dirty linen in public.
He added that the subsequent hurling of accusations by the two organizations had reached “gutter-like” proportions.
“We (They) are actually bringing the politics of the game into the public domain and the youngsters are understanding what is going on behind closed doors when in fact, as proper administrators, they should have tried their best not to let this happen,” he told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview.
“The damage that this is actually creating to the system is one that is going to be irreparable over time and the consequences are great,” he added.
Mentore said that he feared that the present impasse could affect sponsorship of the game regionally by keeping potential sponsors from coming on board especially in face of the global financial meltdown which the World is experiencing.
He said it was his hope that this setback will be the platform for better things to come for the two bodies and that West Indies cricket would once again rise out of its present quandary.
“I hope that this situation turns itself around to be a positive for cricket on the whole in the West Indies,” he said adding that while the situation was a contentious one, the administrators of the game needed to be less contentious and aim at a “workable solution”.
Mentore claimed that there were no individual winners in WI cricket.
He made specific reference to the WIPA and its combative disposition which he said was evident whenever the WIPA’s executives, especially president Dinanath Ramnarine spoke.
“WIPA’s management is always suggesting that they (WIPA) won arbitration talks but arbitration should not be looked at as somebody winning. “My understanding of arbitration is to reach a winning solution for everyone and when I see WIPA operating as if they won arbitration talks I do not see it as a plus but a negative.
“If you go to arbitration where the whole concept is for West Indies cricket to move forward the winner should be West Indies cricket.
“It is not about WIPA triumphing over the West Indies Cricket Board but how we form and come up with a solution so that West Indies cricket wins,” he emphasized.
The dispute, which has resulted in the WICB selecting a second-string team to play Bangladesh in the recently-concluded home series after the top players went on strike, went to mediation after Ramnarine wrote Chairman of CARICOM and president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo.
After a meeting in Georgetown on July 21, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal was appointed to lead the mediation talks.
The first meeting held on July 27 saw little progress and after the first phase of discussions ended Ramphal expressed his dissatisfaction that “more agreement had not been reached.”
He said he had expected a settlement by month-end but now it seems as if this sorry saga in the history of West Indies cricket is set to continue for sometime yet.
