Benjamin lashes WICB - Former speedster questions directors

[Gamma]

the selection process it self leaves much to be desired because is an old boys network..one hand washes the other...today my turn tomorrow your turn...

karl...fi di last time WHAT LONG TERM PLAN HAS THE WICB PUT IN PLACE FOR WEST INDIES CRICKET?!!

[Karl]

the selection process it self leaves much to be desired because is an old boys network..one hand washes the other...today my turn tomorrow your turn...

karl...fi di last time WHAT LONG TERM PLAN HAS THE WICB PUT IN PLACE FOR WEST INDIES CRICKET?!!

Are you trying to say you have never seen or heard of ay plans made by the WICB? ...or if you have seen or heard of plans those plans were not 'long term plans'?

[Karl]

karl...like in football, the talent is there. EVERY single person you mentioned played professionally outside of the caribbean (usually england or australia) sobers and richards go on at length about the competive nature of aussie sportsmen....

england killed that goose for us....they discouraged their county clubs from selecting west indians and imposed limitations on overseas players otherwise...people like viv though had been there for a while and had residency (maybe were even eligible for british citizenship).

the board NEVER put anything in place to develope cricket...the talent would always be there and the pro set up in england cost them nothing to produce champions!

furthermore they became arrogant, players had to play in the domestic competition to be eligible for selection....huh? players doing well in a professional setting had to give up their livelihood to make themselves available to play in a competition that was several levels below what they played in day in day out and for professional coaches.

the substandard players are DEFINITELY the result of POOR management by the WICB that we have a Gayle, Chanderpaul (nothing about his batting is orthodox...WHAT A TALENT) and sarwan...bowlers like taylor is due to RAW talent...xavier marshall, pollard even ganga would have benefitted immensely from proper training and playing consistently at a high level.

consider that our young players go directly from the domestic competition to test cricket which is SEVERAL levels ahead in terms of competition and mental toughness, we are lucky that they are not all mentally torn down!!

I know you have been following WI Cricket sometime after you came of age (clear reference here to my Shady Pines status and your short pants status ) ...

...but tell me have you any knowledge of how the WICB board was formed and how it gets replacement members?

Incidentally what does this article -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/cricket/1369291.stm - by Donna Symmonds say about WI Cricket and the WICB?

Let me repeat - It is in the islands - the islands' cricket boards - where the problems lie. It is the islands that throw up substandard or up-to-standard cricketers.

[Gamma]

stop bobomlacta ask mi what mi trying to seh...mi ask yuh a SPECIFIC question about SEVEN times ... ef you don't know just seh suh nuh, instead of trying to be clever!


name me one long term plan the WICB has put into place....how simple is that?

[Karl]

WICB boss lashes WIPA's attitude to mediation talks

WICB boss lashes WIPA's attitude to mediation talks

CMC
Sunday, September 06, 2009
ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC) - Regional cricket chief Julian Hunte has hit out at West Indies Players Association president Dinanath Ramnarine for having not taken the mediation process seriously.

In a strongly worded letter to Caricom chairman, Guyana's president Bharrat Jagdeo, Hunte pointed out that Ramnarine had left for a family holiday while the process was ongoing, a breach of the terms the West Indies Cricket Board had agreed to at the start.

Talks between the two feuding parties collapsed earlier this week after mediator Sir Shridath Ramphal failed to broker a solution.

"It is also worthwhile noting that at the meeting on August 31, 2009 from which the WIPA facilitator (Ramnarine) 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," the WICB president wrote.

"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."

Against this backdrop, Hunte said he found it "disturbing" that the WICB had been accused of derailing the process, pointing to comments made by Sir Shridath and Jagdeo

[Karl]

stop bobomlacta ask mi what mi trying to seh...mi ask yuh a SPECIFIC question about SEVEN times ... ef you don't know just seh suh nuh, instead of trying to be clever!


name me one long term plan the WICB has put into place....how simple is that?

Gamma, there have been many!

How far back would you like me to go?
When Kerry Parker came on the scene the board adopted a new approach after initially leaving our "Kerry Parker" players out in the cold. For a brief period Alvin Kallicharan captained the team.

The most recent plan...subsequent attempt(s) made to improve by this board...is one termed Strategic Plan, 2008-2012.

The truth is I cannot speak to the plans the various boards have aired...but I can remember a fuss being created when each new board comes into being...usually with its great new wonderful plan that is going to take us back to the top.

...but matters not the plan if the players are as selfish and lousy as these we have, they shall all fall.

[Yuttie]

This is your Burrell's manifesto 2.0.

[Karl]

A battle to the bitter end

A battle to the bitter end

Published: Sunday | September 6, 2009



Tony Becca, Contributor
I could have bet anyone my last dollar. In fact, some time ago while he was in Jamaica, I told Sir Shridath Ramphal that he was wasting his time - that as good as he is, as experienced as he is, he would not be able to successfully mediate between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA).

Following the admission that the former Commonwealth secretary general has failed, I am willing to bet anyone that when it comes to making peace between the board and the present players through their association, that no one, not even the politicians, including those who believe that they have the answers, will be able to mediate successfully.

The players, most of them, are selfish, they have forgotten the help they got along the way - from volunteers in their schools and in their clubs, they apparently care little or nothing for the survival of the game, the development of the young, and the survival of the clubs probably matter little to them.

Without probably even understanding what they are demanding, regardless of what WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine has said from time to time, they want their pound of flesh, regardless.

Not equipped
And the board, although it has started to show some strength in the face of opposition from a section of the public and the politicians, who usually jump to the beat of that section of the public, has too many among its membership who should never be in such a position of responsibility and who are not equipped to deal with the problems.

As a former player, Kenneth Benjamin said a few days ago, while echoing the words of so many in and around the game, many of them are in it simply to feather their own nests.

West Indies cricket is a misfit in the world of professional sports where it is the only 'national' team in the whole wide world which, in the absence of real professionalism - of a professional base where the players are paid by first-class teams or 'business' organisations, franchises, based on their profits or their so-called profits, pays the players so much money, relatively speaking, for repre-senting their country.

West Indies cricket has reached the stage where their differences, apparently, can only be settled, and hopefully so, by arbitration.

In other 'countries', in countries like England, Australia, South Africa, India, and New Zealand, in the United States of America, Italy, Spain, France, in Brazil and Argentina, etcetera, etcetera, cricketers, sportsmen in other sports, in sports like soccer, track and field, tennis, baseball, basketball, American football, and ice hockey are true professionals.

In cricket, they are employed by counties or states, and in some sports, they are employed by clubs, by privately owned franchises like the New York Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys, Manchester United and Real Madrid, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.

In others, like tennis, golf and track and field, they turn pros and ply their trade on the circuits.

In each case they get paid as professionals, and whenever the time comes around to represent their country, and if they so desire, they make themselves available.

Based on what I know, on what I have been told, those who do so, do so for glory, for personal satisfaction - for nothing much more than pocket money.

Apart from those who play in England, before the coming of the IPL, West Indian cricketers made their money playing for the West Indies - not for playing for members clubs like Kingston CC, Melbourne CC, Lucas CC, St. Catherine CC, and Kensington CC in Jamaica, or for Empire and Pickwick in Barbados, for Queen's Park CC in Trinidad and Tobago, and for Georgetown Cricket Club and Everest in Guyana.

They also do not make money playing for the territories in regional first-class cricket - for Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands.

New proposals arise
According to Sir Shridath, the mediation fell through because the board, at the last moment, came up with new proposals and refused to budge. According to the board, however, based on word coming out of it, that was not so.

According to the board, Sir Shridath presented a document to be signed which did not reflect what its representatives had agreed on, and they refused to sign it.

The document, it is said, included situations with the players image which needed agreement between the board and the sponsors, it included setting up an adjudicator to mediate at all times between the board and WIPA - something which, in the opinion of the board, probably meant it could not move without the blessing of WIPA, something which meant that the board, the body duly elected by the fraternity, would be controlled by some one else, it included getting a WIPA rep on the board, and apart from objecting to having someone on top of it and therefore in charge of West Indies cricket, the board reminded the mediator that a place on the board, courtesy of the board, was previously occupied by the WIPA president, who walked away from it.

According to Bharrat Jagdeo, president of Guyana, chairman of CARICOM, the man who, at the request of WIPA, called the two parties together, and the man who appointed the mediator, it was his belief that when, after calling the strike, WIPA made all their players available during the Bangladesh series, it was the basis of a return to normality in team selection, and he was surprised to learn that at that time a team for the Champions Trophy had already been selected.

That may have been President Jagdeo's belief, but after the board, in its opinion and for a peaceful life, had backed off on many occasions in the past five or six years, after the players had gone on strike and had been allowed to come back when they so desired, after the board had lost money, and matches, in the process, the board decided, and rightly so, or understandably so, that this time around they will not be allowed back until everything is sorted out, is signed and sealed - and in black and white at that.

There is right and there is wrong on both sides, the two sides seem determined to fight it out to the bitter end, and although it appears set to take some time, even though West Indies cricket could be further embarrassed, maybe this is the best thing for cricket in the West Indies.
At the end of it, things may change, not exactly as the Patterson Report suggests, not with a body above the board, not with people representing organisations from every walk of life suddenly becoming cricket aficionados and directors of the big board, but in a way that will see organised cricket reorganised, that will see the clubs, the so-called members club, restructured to mirror today's society, and in a way that will see quality people getting back into cricket so that, through elections by the fraternity, cricket will be able to call on quality people to run its affairs.

Question
We can talk all we want to, there is one question which needs to be answered: based on the constitution of the West Indies Cricket Board, based on the constitutions of the clubs and of the territories, how can the change come about and who will take up the challenge to make the change - the challenge of getting the people together, from all around the West Indies, of putting together a structure that will attract quality people and one that will get quality people to serve the game.

People who love the game, people who love West Indies cricket and who understand the importance of it. People who respect those who play the game, and people who will encourage those who play the game to respect the game and those who, in whatever way, shape, or form, support the game.
Maybe, in the interest of the game, the time has come for the ICC, the game's governing body, to get involved. I am willing to bet may last dollar that if the problem was in soccer, if it had anything to do with the Olympic Games, FIFA or the IOC would have been involved long ago.

[Gamma]

ah bwoy yuttie....di "good ol' boys" stick together

[Karl]

Mediated positions bounced

Mediated positions bounced

Published: Tuesday | September 8, 2009


ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):
Both the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) appeared to be backing down yesterday from positions on which they agreed during the mediation process under former Commonwealth Secretary General Shridath Ramphal.

The WICB has decided to pursue disciplinary action against the players who breached its code of conduct, and the players' body has ruled out a role for the Caribbean Court of Justice in upcoming arbitration proceedings.

The regional governing body indicated that disciplinary action against offending players had been initiated prior to the commencement of mediation.

"(It) had been suspended in favour of a settlement through mediation," said the WICB in a news release.
"The WICB had as part of its compromise in the mediation effort offered to withdraw all disciplinary action against the players."

The WICB news release added: "With the failure of mediation, the next step would have been the settlement of all matters through arbitration, which the WICB will be pursuing immediately.

Disciplinary action
"The WICB has decided to resume disciplinary action against all West Indies players who had committed breaches of the WICB code of conduct during the England, India, and Bangladesh tours of the Caribbean by referring these matters to the WICB Disciplinary Committee."
The WICB did not itemise all of the breaches of its code of conduct, but the players are likely going to be asked to respond to well-publicised charges from the three series.

Against England, the players blocked the logo of the team's sponsor during the first one-day international in Guyana, where they also failed to attend a cocktail reception hosted by the same sponsors.

The players also failed to show for the official launch of next year's Twenty20 World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean during India's visit.
Things then came to a head, when 14 leading players withdrew from Bangladesh's tour of the Caribbean to dispute outstanding pay and contractual issues.

WIPA also agreed that with the mediation having broken down, a number of proposals are no longer applicable.
"With regard to the resolution of the outstanding issues between the parties, the involvement of the Caribbean Court of Justice was not and is not under consideration as far as WIPA is concerned," said the players' body in a separate news release.

Obtaining judges The release explained that during the mediation process, Sir Shridath was successful in obtaining the services of judges from the Caribbean Court of Justice and another from the Court of Appeal in Belize to sit in their personal capacity as an arbitration panel to hear two referrals.