CARICOM Chairman Bharrat Jagdeo has delivered a stinging attack on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), placing heavy blame on cricket's regional governing body for the failed mediation talks over the contracts row with the players.

Mediation talks broke down and Jagdeo, who had brokered an agreement six weeks ago for the feuding parties to enter a mediation process, believes the WICB prejudiced the effort from the start by not disclosing they had already selected a Champions Trophy squad without the top-flight players.

The Guyana president said it was his understanding that when the West Players Association (WIPA) agreed during their July 21 meeting to make all their players available for selection, the move would allow 'normalcy' to return to team selection.

Didn't declare position

Jagdeo said the WICB knew otherwise but did not declare their position.

"When the Mediation under Sir Shridath Ramphal was agreed upon with me on 21st July 2009, it was in context in which WIPA made all their players available and I understand this is to be basis of a return to normalcy in Team selection," Jagdeo said in a short press release dated Tuesday, September 1.

"The members of the board did not disclose to me or to WIPA that the board had already selected a 'B' team for the Champions Trophy in South Africa," Jagdeo said.

The CARICOM chairman said WICB President Julian Hunte acknowledged the board's selection position sometime after when the process was too far gone.

"The president later apologised for the omission, but the damage had been done, the Mediation was weakened from the start," Jagdeo said.

Expressing regret over the failure of the WICB and WIPA to reach agreement in their dispute, Jagdeo added that he was not totally surprised.

Slammed administrators

He criticised the WICB's role in the process and slammed the administrators for high-handed behaviour in the matter.

"It seems that the mediation has been the victim of the same spirit of board insistence on getting its own way whatever the consequences for our cricket," Jagdeo declared.

He said CARICOM governments will have to "consider what next to do to save West Indies cricket, and West Indians, everywhere, from still further humiliation."

Jagdeo thanked mediator Sir Shridath Ramphal for his effort and said he awaited a further report from the former Commonwealth Secretary-General.

Officials of the WICB held a news conference at Kensington Oval on Tuesday to announce that its board and WIPA will now pursue arbitration, following the collapse of mediation talks aimed at solving the long-running dispute between them.

WICB Vice-President Dave Cameron disclosed at the news conference that the failure to find a solution to the dispute follows 10 days of tough negotiations throughout the month of August.

"No agreement could be reached at the conclusion of the mediation process, and the next option that is provided under the dispute resolution clause of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with WIPA is arbitration," said Cameron.

Cameron said talks broke down because the players have "changed essentially how they want to be represented, and viewed in commercial terms," departing from the MOU and CBA they have been operating under.