WICB slowing down negotiating process: Ramnarine

Dinanath Ramnarine, the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president, has said that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is slowing down the process of trying to conclude an agreement over long-standing issues.

Speaking in an interview with CMC Cricket Plus on the fourth day of the Carib Beer Series final between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago at Guaracara Park, Ramnarine said a recent letter from Ken Gordon, the WICB president, appeared not to rubber-stamp an agreement that had been earlier reached with other WICB executives.

"One of the constraints that we have is that you would have heard around February 6, the chief executive of the WICB basically saying we reached agreement on the collective labour agreement, the code of conduct and the memorandum of understanding," Ramnarine said. "I recently received a letter from the president of the board basically saying those agreements were drafts. Our position is that we signed off on the agreement. There wasn't a signature, but it was agreed across the table."

The two parties met last Thursday in an effort to try and resolve issues that have plagued West Indies cricket over the past two years. "What [has] frustrated the whole process in dealing with the WICB is every time we negotiate with them and you reach an agreement across the table, the next meeting everything changes," Ramnarine said.

Recently, Clive Lloyd, chairman of the WICB's cricket committee, called on WIPA to try and reach an agreement over retainer contracts by mid-April. Ramnarine said, however, WIPA would not rush to sign a contract for the sake of signing.

"The gist of it and the question we have to ask ourselves is if we sign the retainer contracts, are the players going to be better off. We are not going to be pressured by anybody into signing a retainer contract because we are the only team that does not have a retainer contract. We will sign the retainer contract once we believe that it is a fair and reasonable contract and it is in the best interest of the player," said Ramnarine. "We are not going to be put under pressure by anybody. I don't have any pressure from my members. They are well aware of what is taking place and are very supportive."