West Indies’ tour of Australia looks set to go ahead next month after the national cricket board and players association accepted the binding decision of an arbiter in their contract dispute on Wednesday.
Justice Adrian Saunders’s decision on whether individual players are allowed to hold endorsement deals in conflict with the cricket board’s official sponsor was accepted by the West Indies Cricket Board and West Indies Players’ Association (Wipa), said mediator and Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.
However, he refused to disclose Saunders’s ruling, and board and player officials refused to comment after meeting in St George’s.
”We had a very good meeting,” Mitchell said. ”There are some final issues that they are working on but we are quite convinced that we will have a resolution that will allow the tour to proceed.”
The impasse has delayed the board from announcing the 14-man squad to play in the limited-overs tournament with hosts Australia and Pakistan.
Last week, Wipa president Dinanath Ramnarine claimed Saunders made a ruling that ”endorsed Wipa’s position that the players are entitled to sign individual endorsement contracts with companies which rival those of the board”.
However, the board criticised Ramnarine’s ”attempts to characterise the judgement of the independent arbiter in a manner favorable to the Wipa”. The board did not deny Ramnarine’s statement outright.
Mitchell appointed Saunders, the acting chief justice of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Supreme Court, to make a binding ruling after mediating talks last month.
The spat involves several players, including captain Brian Lara, who have endorsement deals with Cable & Wireless, a telecommunications competitor of the board’s official sponsor, Digicel. — Sapa-AP