The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) has slammed the reappointment of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) panel of selectors – Chairman Clyde Butts, Courtney Browne and Robert Haynes, for a two-year period.
In a media release issued by WIPA the condemnation arose due to “the very serious breaches of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which govern the relationship between the two parties, concerning matters over which the current Selection Committee presided.”
WIPA continued, “In particular, the WICB has recently been found guilty on two separate occasions of various breaches of the MoU’s Article VII which deals with the selection process, the issue of selection being under the sole purview of their Selection Committee.”
WIPA listed the finding’s – failure to conduct the selection process in a fair and transparent manner, failure to uphold the integrity of the process; and making unfounded denigrating public comments about players – which arose from arbitration hearings conducted by Seenath Jairam, senior counsel, in disputes raised with the WICB by WIPA on behalf of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Lendl Simmons.
Jairam, in his ruling on the matters of the aforementioned duo, pointed out “in my considered view the selection process was not done in a fair and transparent manner and therefore in breach of Article VII (e) of the MoU. Further, the integrity of the selection process has not been kept or maintained since public comments have been made which denigrated the claimant.”
“None of the stakeholders of West Indies cricket – players, fans and sponsors alike – ought to have any confidence that the selection process can be fair and transparent under these selectors,” WIPA said.
