| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Karl |
Posted - Nov 27 2004 : 02:52:53 AM
our football?
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LONDON, CMC:
WI players get strong backing
Saturday, November 27, 2004, 12:19:26 AM
IP:68.237.26.180
WI players get strong backing
published: Saturday | November 27, 2004
LONDON, CMC:
WORLD CRICKET players' representative Tim May, strongly supports the position taken by the West Indies Players Association (WPIA) in its current row with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over tour contracts.
In a report on the BBC website yesterday, May said the WICB had offered the players a 'ridiculous' contract for the VB Triangular one-day series to be played in Australia in January.
'They are conditions that no group of players or player association could possibly accept,' May said.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION
He added: 'It is ridiculous to suggest that players should agree to give away the right for third parties to use their image and attributes for advertising and promotional purposes without any financial consideration.'
The impasse between the WIPA and the WICB centres around the Board's insistence that players cannot, without prior approval, endorse rival companies to the WICB's main sponsor.
Several West Indies players, including skipper Brian Lara have personal endorsement deals with Cable & Wireless but complications have arisen because Digicel, rivals of Cable & Wireless, have signed on to sponsor the regional team.
'It is equally ridiculous to suggest that players should agree to significant restrictions in the personal sponsorship market without any offer of financial compensation in return for those restrictions,' said May, the former Australian Test off-spinner who took 75 wickets in 24 Tests.
NINE ACCEPT INVITATION
Only nine of the 25 squad members invited by the WICB to a three-week pre-tournament camp in Barbados starting next Monday accepted the invitation to the pre-tour camp.
May, 42, said player match fees in the West Indies were among the lowest in world cricket.
'Players are reliant on personal endorsements to make a living from the game,' he explained.
'If restrictions are to be applied to their ability to enter the endorsement market, those who seek these restrictions should adequately compensate the players,' May said in the BBC report.
WIPA and WICB were meeting with Grenada's Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell, the CARICOM spokesman on cricket, in St. Georges yesterday in an attempt to find a resolution to the impasse.
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