LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter

Ramnarine, president of the West Indies Players' Association. - File

West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) president Dinanath Ramnarine surprisingly had hardly anything to say about the relationship between WIPA and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) when The Gleaner spoke with him on Saturday from his office in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Ramnarine is usually quick to state what's wrong with the WICB, but greeted The Gleaner with a cautious "no comment" when asked about the way forward for West Indies cricket under new president, Dr. Julian Hunte.

"I'm interested in doing work and getting cricket back to the top so let's try and be positive and move together," Ramnarine quipped briefly.

Ramnarine, who was named one of four non-member directors of the WICB by Hunte, is perhaps looking to start afresh and avoid an acrimonious relationship similar to the one he had with the past president, Ken Gordon.

Only three weeks ago, there was a bitter exchange of letters between Gordon, CEO Bruce Aanensen and Ramnarine.

The WICB chiefs blamed Ramnarine for his "immature" approach to negotiations and misleading the media, while Ramnarine claimed that the WICB did not have West Indies cricket as its main interest.

Clean up image

Shortly after being named president two weeks ago, Hunte said thefirst thing he wants to address is the board's credibility.

Appointing Ramnarine as one of the non-member directors is seen as a step in that direction as the board looks to clean up its image and address the problems on the pitch.

The other non-member directors are former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd, Professor Hillary Beckles, principal of the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, and Ken Hewitt, accountant and head of the finance committee of Cricket World Cup.

Shortly after he was named a director, Ramnarine released a statement which echoed a similar cautious tone as when he spoke with The Gleaner.

"I look forward to the future with cautious optimism and confidence," said Ramnarine. "I have accepted the appointment as a non-executive director with both pride and humility - pride because the ongoing efforts and com-mitment of WIPA have now been formally and publicly recognised, and humility because the future challenges to rebuild West Indies cricket are not for the weak-hearted, and I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to be an integral part of such a rebuilding process."

Has faith

Ramnarine went on to concede that there are advantages and disadvantages to his appointment, but that he has faith in the new president.

"I also discussed the pros and cons of such an appointment with Dr. Julian Hunte, and the personal confidence he has placed in me played a large part in my accepting his offer," stated Ramnarine.

"While in the past other WICB presidents have talked about improving relations with WIPA, Dr. Hunte has 'put his money where his mouth is', and I feel it is incumbent on me to do my best to make the process work without compromising the principles of business negotiations."