WIPA name lead negotiators for WICB talks

West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) has said two of its directors, Dave Kissoon and Michael Hall, will lead its negotiations with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) starting on Monday in Trinidad. The two bodies have had a long-standing dispute over player rights and remuneration and are trying to agree on revisions to the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which was signed in 2006 to provide a path to resolving the conflict. The current CBA, which governs the relationship between the WICB and WIPA, expires in September.

Dinanath Ramnarine, the president and chief executive of WIPA, has usually been the face of the players' body in its dealings with the WICB so far, but the board is reluctant to deal with him. The WICB accused Ramnarine of "unprofessional behaviour" during a meeting in June arranged to resolve the problem over Chris Gayle's non-selection during the home season.

"We want to aid the negotiation process and foster free discourse among the parties," Ramnarine said. "We have appointed two independent and impartial leaders to head our team - Dave Kissoon and Michael Hall. We have done so with the hope that the WICB will also reciprocate and remove any existing barriers to successful negotiations."

Kisson is an attorney who has previously represented WIPA, and Hall is a former chief cricket operations officer of the WICB and the World Cup.