WICB says WIPA rejected “golden opportunity” to end impasse

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The West Indies Cricket Board has accused regional players union WIPA of rejecting an offer from the International Cricket Council to help broker a deal in the bitter, long-running impasse.

In the latest salvo in the war of words between the two bickering bodies, the WICB said it had been approached by cricket’s world governing body, the ICC, who in conjunction with international players body, FICA, proposed an intervention.

Specifically, the ICC offer was aimed at finding a resolution to the contentious issue of image rights.

“The WICB was enthused by this offer and agreed, in full, to the joint ICC and FICA offer to intervene,” a WICB release said Saturday.

“WIPA, when contacted by both FICA – its parent body – and the then ICC President David Morgan, refused to agree to the assistance of the two parent bodies. WIPA expressly stated that it prefers to pursue arbitration.”

The WICB was responding to comments made earlier last week by WIPA who accused the regional board of preferring “to expend large sums of money in pursuing arbitration”.

In a staunch defence of its actions stemming from the Champions League Twenty20 controversy involving the Guyana squad, WIPA blasted the WICB for its tardiness in dealing with players’ contracts.

“The WICB is, on most occasions, guilty of issuing contracts at the eleventh hour (or not at all), dilatory in responding to requests made by WIPA, guilty of failing to honour agreements on a timely basis, of making an issue of players’ entitlements under the agreements,” WIPA claimed.

However, referring to the ICC/FICA offer as a “golden opportunity” to finally reach an agreement, the WICB urged WIPA to reconsider its position on engaging in talks in partnership with the two world bodies.  Also, the WICB called on the players’ organisation to abandon its “antagonistic and confrontational approach” and seek a more productive means of reaching a solution to the standoff.

“The WICB calls on WIPA to join in acting in the best interest of the game in the West Indies by dealing with the issues in a fair and balanced manner …,” the WICB release continued.

“Should WIPA insist on maintaining its rejection of the joint ICC/FICA offer, the WICB will be left with no choice but to leave the public to judge – on the basis of the facts – and to determine which party actually prefers “to expend large sums of money in pursuing arbitration.”