Ramnarine rebuts Aanensen on player contracts issue

Dinanth Ramnarine is not convinced with Bruce Aanensen's claims © Trinidad & Tobago Express

Dinanath Ramnarine, the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) president and CEO, has rebutted Bruce Aanensen, CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), on his version of how the arbitration process had gone to date on the issue of the England tour, stating that some facts were misrepresented in a WICB media conference on Friday.

After giving the players the go-ahead to sign up for the controversial tour yesterday, Ramnarine disputed Aanensen's version of why the resolution for the controversial England tour had arrived at this juncture.

The failure of the regional administration to deliver their supporting documents by an extended May 4 deadline set by an arbitration panel led by the Barbados Chief Justice Sir David Simmons forced Simmons to give a new deadline of May 7, 10.30am, for the WICB to submit their case and supporting documents.

"If this time frame is not kept, the panel may have to consider proceeding to determine the issue on such documents as it has at the time," Simmons said.

The Chief Justice's warning follows Aanensen's claim that the board had submitted their case to the arbitration panel last Tuesday, a statement that was in contradiction to the one made by Aanensen in Friday's WICB media conference that was broadcast throughout the region from the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain.

"All the documents have been submitted to him," Aanensen said in a CMC [Caribbean Media Corporation] interview last week. "He [Simmons] says he needs time to study them and that he doesn't believe there is any way that they can have this arbitration prior to the team leaving on the 8th."

However, in Friday's media conference, Aanensen explained the discrepancy in his earlier disclosure by saying the WICB could not be expected to have supplied their supporting documents and written submissions because they were only informed about the terms of reference on May 1.

The terms of reference are whether the tour to England is within or outside the ICC Future Tours Program.

"So how could Ramnarine say that the WICB did not meet the deadline of April 27 for submitting documents when the terms of reference were only known on May 1?" he asked, before adding that the Simmons-chaired panel would rule on the matter on May 15.

However, documents seen by the Sunday Express showed no mention of a resolution by May 15, the panel only advising that if the need for oral argument arises, that would be facilitated on Wednesday (May 9) and Thursday (May 10) this week.

Simmons had also attempted to extend the deadline to the WICB to May 4 but was advised by the board's lawyers they would not be ready due to previously-pending matters.

"In the circumstances I must insist that I have WICB's case and documents no later than 10.30am Monday May 7," the Simmons insisted.

The Sunday Express understands that after the April 22 stalemate between WIPA and the WICB that sent the issue to arbitration, the Players' Association issued both their supporting documents and written submissions to Simmons on April 27. The WICB are yet to issue theirs.

If the WICB are tardy, the arbitration panel said it will be forced to issue a ruling without data to support the board's case. Asked about other matters still outstanding from previous arbitrations, Ramnarine said he was concentrating on the England tour issue and would deal with those matters subsequently.