PORT-OF-SPAIN Trinidad (CMC):

The West Indies players may not have won any of the Test matches on their tour of England, but they have scored a resounding victory in their ongoing wrangle with the West Indies Cricket Board about the status of the tour.

Dinanath Ramnarine, president of the West Indies Players' Association, announced yesterday that a three-member arbitration panel consisting of Sir David Simmons, the Chief Justice of Barbados, Barbadian Queen's Counsel Elliott Mottley, and management consultant Aubrey Armstrong have ruled that the current tour of England is outside the ICC Future Tours Programme.

"The significance of this issue resides in the fact that if the England tour is within the Future Tours Programme the standard terms and conditions for players apply, and there would be no need for negotiation of separate terms and conditions," Ramnarine told reporters at the Queen's Park Oval attending a news conference which was broadcast 'live' around the region.

He added: 'On the other hand, if the England tour is outside of the Future Tours Programme, it will require WIPA to negotiate separate terms and conditions for the players in accordance with the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding between the players' association and the WICB."

Tony Deyal, corporate services manager of the WICB, said the regional body had no comment to make on the matter.

"I am disappointed, but not surprised that this information has been revealed in this way," he said. "We have promised the arbitrators that we would make no public comment on the matter, something which was binding on both parties, and we will stick to this."

Ramnarine noted that the panel urged WICB and WIPA to negotiate the terms and conditions for the players on the tour of England in good faith, stressing that agreements must be honoured, procedures followed, and an attitude of mutual respect and sincerity must pervade negotiations.

The WICB was expected to gross US $1.25 million from the tour and WIPA is expected to negotiate for around 25 per cent of that figure.
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