WI cricketers strike!
It’s just not cricket. Trade unionist Dinanath Ramnarine tells West Indies cricketers to lay down bats and balls.
Here we go again-another cricket strike.
Reports are that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is looking to assemble a new cricket team after the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) announced that the recently selected team will not be taking the field against lowly Bangladesh in the first Test scheduled for Arnos Vale Cricket Ground, St Vincent, on Thursday.
WIPA President Dinanath Ramnarine told a press conference at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday that WIPA has failed, despite promises, to settle several outstanding issues including contracts for players. He said there were no contracts for the present series against Bangladesh which involves two Tests and Three One Day internationals and one T20 match.
There was no settlement of retainer contract payments for the recent England tour; no settlement of fees for the tour as well as the ICC T20 tournament; no retainer contracts for the Bangladesh tour; no injury payments; clothing contracts etc.
Ten years ago, a tour of South Africa was in trouble because of the Board’s failure to provide contracts and over the years there have been consistent problems between WIPA and the Board on this and other matters affecting the players.
Two Trinidadians apart from vice-captain Denesh Ramdin and Dwayne Bravo are among the 13 selected for the First Test. Trini newcomers are teenaged opening batsman Adrian Barath and fast bowler Ravi Rampaul as well as fast-bowler Andrew Richardson from Jamaica.
If a new team is selected, it will not be the first time this has been done. In the late 1970s, the Board led by Jeffrey Stollmeyer hastily assembled a new team after Australian tycoon Kerry Packer induced the nucleus of the West Indian team led by Clive Lloyd to play in a Packer League in Australia.
This eleventh hour action by WIPA poses a stern challenge for the Board which must now come up with a new team or face a US $1 million fine from the International Cricket Conference for aborting the Test match.
On Saturday, the cricketers, apparently, snubbed the launch of the ICC 2010 T20 launch in St Lucia. The launch was attended by members of the Indian team. The international competition will be held in the Caribbean.
More developments, in the Tntinsider, on the looming cricket strike later today.