Ramnarine pleased with contract negotiations

Dinanath Ramnarine, president of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) has said that he is satisfied with the pace of negotiations with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) as they look towards new retainer contracts. The last contracts expired at the end of last month.

"We are working on new retainers and I can report that at the moment there are no major issues," Ramnarine told Sunsport. "We are satisfied with the way things are going and we remain optimistic."

In recent years, the players and the board have been embroiled in a number of embarrassing public stand-offs which have occasionally led to the players withdrawing their services.

However, since assuming the post of board president, Julian Hunte has struck a conciliatory note with WIPA. He appointed Ramnarine as a non-executive member of the board, so that the WIPA, according to him, "can now be part of the solution instead of continuing to be perceived as part of the problem". Hunte has also gone beyond Ramnarine's formal appointment to bonding with the players themselves.

West Indies have plenty of cricket in the coming months, starting with a one-day series in Zimbabwe next month, followed by a tour of South Africa which includes three Tests and three one-day internationals. West Indies are scheduled to host Australia and Sri Lanka between March and June.