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The following is a letter, leaked exclusively to Wired868, which was sent today by the West Indies cricket team to West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Whycliffe “Dave” Cameron and CEO Michael Muirhead on the eve of tomorrow’s ODI against India.
The players have urged Cameron to use his conscience to remedy the impasse over the new Collective Bargaining Agreement/Memorandum of Understanding after their “act of good faith” in playing—and winning—the opening ODI in Kochi on Wednesday:
To: The President WICB.
Dear Mr. Cameron,
We write to you to make a conscience (sic) appeal to fair play and justice and to seek your urgent intervention in helping to remedy the emerging impasse between ourselves and the West Indies Cricket Board.
As you are aware, as an act of good faith and in the spirit of camaraderie that epitomizes regional cricket, we conceded to go forward with the 1st One-Day Match in India with the expectation that we would resolve the critical matter of all our contractual terms.
Our decision to play in India was in no way intended to convey an acceptance by the players of the unreasonable terms and conditions put forward to us by WICB nor was it intended as an expression of our acceptance of the purported new Memorandum of Understanding.
In fact, the Players have collectively determined that they will not accept any contracts arising out of an agreement if they have not been privy to the terms and conditions resulting in the contents of such contracts. The process that has been supposedly undertaken on our behalf is, in our view, a breach of trust, a clear lack of transparency and violation of our rights.
It would therefore be not only imprudent, but immoral to consider such representative action to be in any way appropriate or right.
For the record, we wish to reiterate our position put forward to the WICB earlier through WIPA, which is, that we propose the continuation under the old structure until a new agreement is reached between the players and WICB.
Neither the WICB nor the players would be disadvantaged by such a mutually agreed arrangement. We believe this to be a sensible and reasonable option in the interim, while we negotiate new terms and conditions that have been properly ventilated.
It is our view, given the circumstances of the formulation and finalising of this agreement, the WIPA Board needs to do the right thing and resign. We wish to formerly advise you that WIPA has no authority to speak on our behalf.
(Courtesy WIPA)
We also note that we finally got a response yesterday from Mr. Hinds. However, his response leads us to pose more questions than the “answers” provided. There were many inaccuracies in Mr Hinds’ letter to which we will provide a detailed response in due course.
We will advise you of the person or persons entrusted with the responsibility to act on our behalf shortly.
As you may be aware, we have demonstrated much restraint in this matter in trying to get our former representatives to fix this travesty but unfortunately this has not occurred. We are hopeful that, with your intervention, the matter can be resolved without public or other recourse.
In the meantime we will continue to seek advice.
We look forward with urgency to your reply and direction with regard to settling this matter amicably and in the best interests of all the parties.
Regards,
The West Indies cricket team.
Editor’s Note: Click HERE to read the response from West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president Wavell Hinds to the West Indies cricketers’ call for his resignation.
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I always wanted to do cricket more comprehensively. But never had the time. Football has loads.
I’m getting a headache with this now…
Sadly, no other journalists seem to be plugged in either…or at least don’t care. It’s always easier to blame the WICB for everything.
So you think Hinds just decided to give all those rights to the WICB because he felt the players didn’t need the money? Or it would be a nice gift for the WICB?
I suppose you’re hinting at something that I’m not plugged in enough to catch.
I don’t know the ins and outs of cricket business that well.
Many times, people try to mask crookedness as incompetence.
“WIPMACOL (West Indies Player Management Company Limited), along with WIPA Sports, comes under the umbrella of WIPA Holdings which is the umbrella holding company and for-profit arm of WIPA. All companies share the same group of directors — Dinanath Ramnarine, Wavell Hinds, Jimmy Adams, and Ian Bradshaw.
WIPA Sports will be engaged in the running of tournaments like the WIPA 20/20 club championships which is held annually in Trinidad while WIPMACOL manages the players IP and Image rights.
On various dates between October 2007 and January 2008, several players had signed over their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to WIPA. These rights were then reassigned to WIPMACOL with the consent of the players. This information was communicated to Dave Cameron and Donald Peters (then CEO of the WICB) via letter on November 21st 2007 and then again on February 18th 2009.”
Is this at the heart of the dispute between WIPA1 and WIPA2?
Either sellout or incompetence could be both as well.
They would do well to focus on playing the game instead of bringing our team into the kankalang between them and their union.
This whole scenario is moving from the sublime to the ridiculous.
West Indies players took to the pitch today in the second ODI against India with black tape around their arms as a silent protest against the players’ contracts signed between the WICB and WIPA.
Lasana Liburd, find out who owns those image rights and to whom the payments for their use in the past have been made. Hint…sounds like something you sap on your forehead when you have a fever. Lol
The players maintain that even now they do not have copies of the MOU. But the problem seems to be over image rights and deals with sponsors and not match fees.
So anybody have the real figures if Hinds own are inaccurate?
I hope it is amicably resolved!
Dig man, dig…you ent find de real story yet.
That story old, about the WIPA company set up to handle players image rights
Somebody slip showing, oui…go back and check the correspondence from a couple years ago during the WICB/WIPA impasse and you will see why the whole issue of ‘image rights’ is causing serious problems to one particular character in the dance. Ask who owns those rights and you might have a story on your hands.
That is like Petrotrin negotiating a Collective Agreement with the OWTU on behalf of its few thousand workers, signing on the dotted line and everything, and then 15 workers from Petrotrin Head Office in PaP calling for Roget to step down because they don’t like the terms…and want to strike as a result. Strike against who, the Union? Steups, oui!
According to a writer earlier on this threas, somebody slip showing…….
Allyuh too jokey yes…the WICB negotiated and signed a new CBA/MOU with the recognised bargaining body for the players, WIPA, and now folks trying to accuse the Board of acting in bad faith? Allyuh serious in dis place? Steups, oui!
Don’t know why the ass the WI Players just don’t cancel the damn series and done the ole talk if they really serious. It’s only then the WICB will sit up and take notice. Maybe they need The Women’s Football Coach to act on their behalf. SMH!!
Let’s see what the WICB is made of!