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Mediations Break Down In West Indies

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Has there ever been a comprehensive strategy by the WICB to professionalize, market and run the game as adults?
Well they ordered a report be done that was lead by a former Prime Minister. He along with two other noted Caribbean nationals prepared the report to improve the WICB governance and they rejected the governance portion of the report that would have seen the board structure being changed. So the main suggestion was ignored and some of the other points made were put into a strategic plan. That's been almost two years now and very little has been done.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Pretty appalling. If the ICC eventually dropped Zimbabwe for mismanagement, and the US setup for the same issues, surely there will come a point where they can do the same to the WICB.
Cricket can do without ZIM as a test nation. But not WI. So
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Interestingly, the IAAF had the balls to step in and insist that the JAAA bury the hatchet in their silly, trivial argument with Stephen Francis, and allow Asafa Powell, Brigitte Foster and Shelly-Ann Fraser to compete at the World Champs. The ICC could learn from taht precedent....:dry:

But the WICB, led by madman Hunte, seem to think they have carte blanche to do their foolishness, because no administrator in the Caribbean had the guts to challenge them at the AGM last month. The end result is that Hunte and Co were re-elected unopposed!
:@
Yea because the IAAF is a proper governing body - the ICC aint. More & more as these little issues come about, the ICC disgraceful structure keeps making cricket look bad.
 

TT Boy

Hall of Fame Member
Not sure that the ICC can ever tell a member country who to pick, though. And in any case several of the 'new' side, such as Roach, Bernard and Sammy, would claim that they should be in the team anyway.
If Brazil was going to send a 5th strength team to the World Cup, FIFA would be implored from their commercial partners to have a word. The ICC have the same commercial commitments but the Windies are not particularly important and the ICC just don't have the clout that other sporting bodies have.
 

shivfan

Banned
So, now that mediation has broken down because of the intransigent position of the WICB, what's next for the West Indies team....
:unsure:
 

pasag

RTDAS
Shouldn't be allowed into the country unless Gayle and Chanderpaul are there. This thing is turning into a bigger mess than The Big Six.
 

Smudge

Hall of Fame Member
And this from someone who once worked for the WICB but gladly retained sanity:
Aussie once worked for the WICB?

1.)Who is WIPA....Sir Sridath tore them a new asshole and asked them how the rass they could be asking about the identity of an organization that they have been dealing with for the past 35 years???!!
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
Why? Economically they don't bring much to the table, been a basket case for years.
True. Buts thats another issue. Cricket only has 8 strong nations, WI with their history can't afford to be left to crumble.
 

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Dear Sir Shridath,

We have given serious consideration to the contents of your draft agreement which was submitted for consideration by both parties earlier today.

After extensive discussion in this regard, please find attached a draft Mediation Agreement in a form that would be acceptable for signature by WICB which, in our opinion, succinctly covers the range of issues agreed upon by parties and those that remain unresolved. We are hopeful that with the concurrence of WIPA we shall be able to conclude the mediation process tomorrow on this basis.

Further, we wish to propose that, in order to preserve the integrity of the process going forward, the details of the Mediation Agreement be sealed as between the parties and the Mediator pending the final resolution by arbitration of the remaining unresolved items.

Regards,
Gerard

--
Gerard E. Pinard (WICB facilitator)
 

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Please see below letter from Dr Julian R. Hunte, President of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), to His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana and Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).



Dear President Jagdeo,

As you will recall, I met with you at your invitation along with other representatives of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in Guyana on July 21, 2009 to discuss a means of bringing to a satisfactory resolution a number of issues in dispute between WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).

Based on your intervention and with the concurrence of the WIPA representatives with whom we also met on July 21, it was agreed by both parties that we would jointly invite Sir Shridath Ramphal, former Commonwealth Secretary General, to immediately commence mediation proceedings on the basis of our mutual acceptance of the importance and urgency of resolving the immediate differences between WIPA and ourselves and setting our relations on a path of lasting cooperation.

We also agreed at that meeting that each Party would appoint a Facilitator from among its membership to assist the Mediator in his interaction with the Parties and that the Caricom Secretariat would provide administrative assistance to the Mediation Team which was expected to begin its work immediately. You also kindly agreed to have Caricom standing by to assist if required.

You will also recall that it was agreed on July 21 that the players who had withdrawn their services from the West Indies Team would make themselves available for selection pending the resolution of the outstanding issues between the parties, though you concurred at the time that actual team selection was a matter for the Board’s Selection Committee.

Both parties signed on July 21 in your presence the WICB/WIPA Mediation Agreement, commonly referred to as “the Georgetown Agreement”, and we commenced mediation proceedings in Barbados with Sir Shridath on July 26, 2009. Sir Shridath presented a document to both parties entitled “WICB – WIPA Mediation Rules of Procedure” which, with minor modifications, was agreed by all.

On that same day, Sir Shridath issued a Press Release in which he informed the public that the Mediation Process had commenced, with assistance from the Caricom Secretariat, and that the Facilitators nominated by the Parties were Mr. Dinanath Ramnarine (WIPA) and Mr. Gerard Pinard (WICB). Sir Shridath also gave his assurance that the Rules of Procedure required the discussions in the mediation process to be confidential. Sir Shridath also expressed the hope that the mediation proceedings could be satisfactorily concluded by the end of August, 2009.

It is now common knowledge that the mediation process came to an end on September 01, 2009 without the Parties reaching agreement on all or indeed many of the issues in dispute.

It has since been widely reported in the media that the cause of the premature end to the mediation proceedings, which were scheduled to continue until September 04, 2009 if necessary, was the submission of a new document by the WICB during the night of August 31, 2009 and that the WICB had informed the Mediator that it was not prepared to negotiate “on any other basis”.

In fact, Sir Shridath in his Final Report to Caricom dated September 01, 2009, entitled “Caricom Cricket Mediation”, stated that the document submitted by WICB was “the only text the Board was willing to sign”. Sir Shridath also stated in his final report that “Twenty-four hours before the Mediation Process ended I believed there was such an agreement save on one issue which, with the agreement of both parties, I was seeking to have resolved by third party cooperation, which seemed likely – a probability which I conveyed to both Parties”.

I am advised that the articulation of the WICB’s position by Sir Shridath in his press statements and in his final report to you are factually incorrect and that there was never any adoption by the

WICB during the mediation proceedings of an unwillingness to negotiate on the proposed Mediation Agreement which it submitted on the night of August 31, 2009. In fact, it was clearly articulated in the e-mail to Sir Shridath which accompanied the proposed draft that the document represented an attempt by the WICB Team to succinctly cover “the range of issues agreed upon by parties and those that remain unresolved” and that the team was “hopeful that with the concurrence of WIPA we shall be able to conclude the mediation process tomorrow on this basis”. Clearly, the wording speaks for itself.

It is also worthwhile noting that at the meeting on August 31, 2009 from which the WIPA Facilitator had absented himself to proceed on vacation with his family in Tobago, with the agreement of Sir Shridath (contrary to the prior stipulation by Sir Shridath that the proceedings could not and would not be held in the absence of either of the Facilitators) the WICB Team informed the Mediator of its strong disapproval of the WIPA Facilitator’s absence and its concern that WIPA was not taking the proceedings seriously enough. It is worthwhile noting that both

Parties had agreed that the proceedings would continue until September 04, 2009 if necessary and were requested to make themselves available for the entire period August 27, 2009 to September 04, 2009 for meetings in Barbados. Despite this agreement, two of the WIPA representatives, including its Facilitator, left the island on August 30 and did not attend the meeting on August 31.

The WICB Team, on the other hand, was fully represented at each and every meeting of the mediation proceedings. In this regard, it is more than a little disturbing to read the comments attributed not only to Sir Shridath but also to you and others that seek to give the impression that the WICB was the Party responsible for the unsatisfactory and premature end to the WICB/WIPA Mediation proceedings.

It is my sincere hope that you will agree that an early meeting between us may assist in correcting the erroneous impressions that have been conveyed in order to forestall any further adverse effect on the reputation of West Indies Cricket.

At the same time, I trust that you will appreciate the urgent need for us to set about some urgent damage control measures having regard to the misinformation that is already in the public domain.



Yours sincerely,

Dr. Julian R. Hunte
President
West Indies Cricket Board Inc.
 

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Sounds to me that the WICB presented a take it or leave it agreement, contrary to what the "esteemed Doctor" wants us to believe.
 

roseboy64

Cricket Web Content Updater
Oh and the WICB are blaming the absence of Ramnarine on the parties' failure to agree when the WICB introduced a new document into the negotiations at the 11th hour.

Never believe anything they say without proof.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Shouldn't be allowed into the country unless Gayle and Chanderpaul are there. This thing is turning into a bigger mess than The Big Six.
Would be one of the most boring and one-sided Test series in history. If Bangladesh can beat them at home, then I have grave fears to what the Australians will do to them.
 

pup11

International Coach
This is where ICC just shows how much of spineless governing body it is, WICB have looked incapble of running things around in West Indian cricket for a long time now, and in such cases I don't care what the rules say, the ICC should step-in and ensure that all the problems are resolved as quickly as possible.

They allowed Zimbabwean and Kenyan cricket to die because of poor administration, and if they don't intervene soon enough, then there is every likelyhood the same might happen with West Indian cricket.
 

shivfan

Banned
Right now, quite frankly, I'm more interested in following Caribbean athletics than West Indian cricket....

And I know quite a few WI fans who feel the same way I do right now.
 

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