St John’s, Antigua – The West Indies Cricket Board provides to the media and public a general update on the following matters.
1. The WICB is pleased to report that the parties are making progress with regard to the premature end to the tour of India. President Dave Cameron met and had preliminary talks with officials from the BCCI while attending an ICC meeting in Dubai recently. The WICB has also officially responded to the letter received from the BCCI. The WICB remains confident that an amicable and mutually agreeable resolution can be had.
2. The Terms of Reference of the WICB appointed Task Force is as follows:
(a) Investigate the cause of the actions perpetuated by the players leading to the withdrawal of their services. Based on the facts which emerge, the Task Force will render their opinion of the degree of culpability attributed to the WICB, to the WIPA and to the players and whether the action of the players was justifiable or considered a reasonable course of action.
(b) Examine the relationship between the West Indies Players’ Association (“WIPA”), West Indies Cricketers and the West Indies Cricket Board (“WICB”), with a view to making recommendations on the nature and structure of the relationship between WICB and the cricketers (separate and apart from the relationship between WICB and WIPA).
(c) Design and propose a fast-track dispute resolution mechanism, which would apply to ongoing tours, and give the players an expedited process through which they could ventilate any issues, so as to mitigate against the risk of future tours ending prematurely as a result of player action.
The Task Force will report its finding to the Board of Directors by December 13, 2014.
(d) Sir Richard Cheltenham has replaced Dennis Lalor on the Task Force. Mr. Lalor withdrew in light of a potential conflict of interest.
Michael Gordon QC – Chairman
Sir Wes Hall
Sir Richard Cheltenham QC
The Secretary to the Task Force is WICB attorney Alanna Medford. Mr. Gerard Pinard will serve as Industrial Relations advisor to the Task Force.
3. The Team Management Debriefing has been completed. The debriefing took place in St John’s, Antigua on Tuesday, November 11 and was conducted by WICB directors Ricky Skerritt and Chairman of the Cricket Committee Julian Charles along with Chief Executive Officer Michael Muirhead. Debriefed were Team Manager Sir Richie Richardson, Chairman of Selectors Clive Lloyd, Director of Cricket Richard Pybus (who was in India with the team), coaches Stuart Williams and Andre Coley and Bowling Consultant Sir Curtly Ambrose. Captains Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Darren Sammy participated via Skype. The debriefing report will not be made public for reasons of confidentiality which is standard in such exercises.