Breakthrough in West Indies contract talks

The dispute between the West Indian players and the board appeared to be closer to being resolved after the 16 players who had been dropped were allowed to attend a three-week training camp in Barbados starting on November 30.

The breakthrough came after seven hours of talks chaired by Dr Keith Mitchell, Grenada's prime minister. They ended with both parties agreeing to submit briefs by next Friday which will enable an independent adjudicator to be appointed to try to find a solution.

"I feel heartened that after this long and difficult process we have an understanding on the way forward and it appears now that the tour to Australia may not be jeopardised by the grievance," Mitchell told The Nation newspaper. "Clearly there needs to be a much closer working relationship between the board and the players' representatives. That is a major deficiency and the prime ministerial sub-committee plans to meet very soon and will be involving all the parties to look at a fundamental process for the way forward for the development of West Indies cricket."

Dinanath Ramnarine, representing the players, welcomed developments. "We have always indicated we were interested in continuing our dialogue with the process of reaching an agreement," he said. "We are happy that this process will continue and we are looking forward to it."

The dispute escalated in the last fortnight, culminating in the board dropping 16 players after they refused to sign a controversial contract which prevented them from promoting any company which was a rival of Digicel, a telecommunications company which had signed a US$20 million deal with the West Indian board. Many players had earlier signed individual deals with Cable & Wireless, a rival company. The board wanted the players to terminate those contracts without compensation, which the players refused to do, leading to the standoff. The dispute threatened to jeopardise West Indies' participation in the VB Series, with Cricket Australia insisting on a full-strength line-up for the tournament.