 The West Indies cricket team has threatened to pull out of tomorrow's test
match against Bangladesh at St. Vincent owing to a contractual dispute
between the players and the West Indies Cricket Board. The first of the two-test
match series between West Indies and Bangladesh was supposed to begin tomorrow,
but this announcement from the West Indian camp may have thrown this game in jeopardy.
The announcement of the purported boycott was made by the West Indies Players'
Association (WIPA) after their talks with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)
regarding the contract failed to get resolved. WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine
said the players would boycott the series "with immediate effect",
because of the breakdown.
Apparently, according to Ramnaraine, the West Indian players have gone into
four successive series without a contract and if they did play in the Bangladesh
series, it would have been the fifth one in succession. The talks between the
WIPA and WICB had been on regarding these contracts, but when the talks failed
the players were left without contracts again, and that effectively meant that
the players will not be able to take field tomorrow.
Ramnaraine gave an instance, "When a player called me last week and asked
what was the position with regards to his injury while playing cricket for the
West Indies in the just concluded Twenty20 World Cup, my response was that was
there was no written contract in place."
Now, there have been reports that if the main-stream West Indian team did not
take field for tomorrow's game, there is a chance that a second string team
has been kept on a stand-by and may play the match. Representatives from both
sides, the WIPA and WICB have denied any such movie of a West Indies A team
making way into the ground tomorrow, with the West Indies Cricket Board President,
Julian Hunte appearing confident that the series will go ahead as planned.
He asserted, "As far as we are concerned there will be a Test match on
Thursday"
The West Indian cricketers have been involved in contractual controversies
earlier as well, especially related to the Indian Premier League, when the cricket
board had planned a series against England during the same time as the IPL.
This led to a battle between the players and the board and was resolved when
the board agreed to cancel the pre-series camp. As it turned out, West Indies
lost the two test match series, 2-0 and rather convincingly at that.
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