Wavell Hinds, president of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), has described as surprising, claims by West Indies Twenty20 captain, Darren Sammy, that the organisation has not represented their best interest as it relates to contracts for ICC Twenty20 World Cup in India next month.
Sammy, in a recent letter to the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), claimed that a reduction in payments for players to participate in the tournament, has ran contrary to their expectations, and, as a result, members squad, are seeking a renegotiation.
However, Hinds, whose entity has been at loggerheads with several of its senior playing members, especially since their aborted tour of India in October 2014, has defended negotiated contracts between WIPA and the WICB, saying that what has been arrived at represents the “best interest” of all players in the region.
“I am surprised that they (World Twenty20 squad players) are behaving this way, as the information (based on new payments) would have been disseminated to them nine months ago,” stated Hinds.
“I was present at all the meetings, and Darren Sammy was not, so I think he is speaking on information he has gotten.
“[However], as far as I am concerned the team that I lead, and the executive that I lead, and the members of the (WIPA) negotiating team, did all the best that they could to get the best.”
He continued: “This was not just for a selected group of players, but for all the players of the region, including first-class players.”
Currently serving his fourth year as president, Hinds explained that the contracts were negotiated based on new payment conditions stipulated by the WICB, as a result of changes at the International Cricket Council (ICC) level.
This, he continued, has subsequently resulted in players being offered less money as compared to the Twenty20 World Cup in 2012.
LESS MONEY
“In February 2014, the International Cricket Council (ICC) agreed to have a new payment scale for its members, and this took effect January 2016,” said Hinds.
“The new (players’) remuneration package is therefore based on current commercial revenues available to the WICB, and not that of commercial revenue that obtained in 2012 when the West Indies won the tournament.
“There is no specific fees for Twenty20 World Cups anymore. Its ICC Events payments,” he stressed.
Hinds also expressed that the disbursement of monies from the ICC has also change with payments now being collectively issued twice per year over a new four- and eight-year period, in comparison, to it’s prior one-off payment regimes.
Hinds, in further explaining the new payment structure, also said that player match fees for Twenty20 World Cup has been increased from US$1,750 to US$6,900.
This is in addition to an incentive 80 per cent of prize money won, and 50 per cent of sponsorship fees, should there be any.
