President of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) Wavell Hinds slammed into West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels for speaking the untruth concerning his remuneration for playing for the West Indies.
Samuels said he was being paid US$5,000 per Test match and it was much lower than what he was accustomed to getting. He said that he started 16 years ago and his salary back then was $5,000 and it is now very hard to go back to playing for $5,000.
Hinds, who played for the West Indies, said: “I started 16 years ago when Chris Gayle and I made our debut at the Queen’s Park Oval and we got US$2,500 for our first game—this is a far cry from the $5,000 that Marlon is speaking about.
“He said he was getting US$17,500 before his salary was cut to US$5,000. Marlon is a retained player and gets a monthly salary and then match fees. If he doesn’t play cricket he gets a salary each month.”
The former aggressive left-hander went on to explain further: “What Marlon is speaking about when he says he was getting US$17,500 is a salary based on the fact that the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was giving the players US$35,000 per cricket day for wearing their brand on the clothing.
“As part of the deal with Digicel, they wanted the WICB to retain players so they are guaranteed to have staff to represent the brand on the field. What the WICB did was to move the US$35,000 it into retainer fee, which has been ramped up. The match fees right now are as follows, Test match is US$5,750, ODIs is US$2,300 and T20s US$1,750.
Back in the year 2000, of which Marlon is speaking, the retainer had three categories and the value was as follows, an A+ player of which we had one, got US$105,000, an A grade player got US$80,000, a B players got US$53,000 and a C player made US$30,000.
As of today the retainers have been increased significantly and we have even added an extra category. An A+ now gets US$150,000, an A grade is now US$135,000, B+ grade US$120,000, B grade US$115,000 and a C grade US$100,000—that is a great amount.
“What the WICB has done is to take the sponsorship and put it in the retainer because the players were being paid twice for the same reason before.
“For guys who are not retained—they will get match fees and a certain amount for wearing the brand.”
Hinds signed off by saying that WIPA has negotiated well with the WICB and the players get US$30.5m of the commercial revenue. Out of this amount 57 per cent goes to the international players and the other 43 per cent goes to the CPL players. The smaller number of the players are getting the bigger part of the revenue,” he ended.
