CATEGORY:SPORTS (CRICKET) ----------------------------- INSIDE GRENADA THURSDAY July 19,2007 The ongoing scuffle between the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WIPA) seems to be mounting in its intensity. A media release signed by the CEO and President of WIPA, Dinanath Ramnarine (himself a former West Indies cricketer), stated that WIPA ‘cannot accept’ the unilateral process that the WICB continues to insist on taking in deciding what is to be or not to be. This statement was ostensibly made in response to an announcement by the WICB on Monday of this week. The board informed the public that they had agreed to a five-year extension of the current sponsorship contract with regional telecommunications giant, Digicel, until 2012. The deal is rumored to be worth in the vicinity of US$4M. While WIPA does not seem to have a problem with the sponsorship deal per se, the organization seems to have taken issue with the fact that decision was made without consultation with the players, which Ramnarine claims is a breach of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two parties. The WIPA head invoked Article 11 of the MOU which, he said, states that "…prior consultation with WIPA is necessary before any such sponsorship agreement is signed". Ramnarine felt that the recent unilateral action by the board continues “to undermine the maintenance and strengthening of good relations between both parties” and that “WIPA is now forced to pay more careful attention to the protection of the players' intellectual property rights." According to Ramnarine, "It would appear that WICB chose to ignore advising WIPA of its intention to re-negotiate with Digicel. Having come to an agreement without consulting with WIPA, the board decided to make the deal public and as an afterthought, stated that WIPA would be forwarded a copy of the agreement for its perusal."