No reprisals for replacement players, says Ramnarine

Two members of the depleted West Indies squad taking part in the opening Test against Bangladesh have breached contracts with the West Indies Players Management Company (WIPMC).

Dinanath Ramnarine, executive president of the West Indies Players Association, which has formed the WIPMC as a subsidiary to control the players intellectual and image rights, has disclosed that left-arm spinner Nikita Miller and uncapped fast bowler Nelon Pascal have breached their contracts with the company.

But Ramnarine said WIPMC would take no action against the two players or the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for this infraction.

"They have signed over their IP and image rights to WIPMC and they cannot just accept an offer to play for the West Indies," said Ramnarine.

"Obviously, they just cannot sell their rights by signing contracts with the West Indies Cricket Board.

"The WICB must negotiate this with WIPMC. But we would leave this and just allow it to pass at this point, there are bigger issues to deal with."

The players' chief also disclosed that no action would be taken against the players that have chosen to play in the match.

The WICB was forced to assemble a new-look squad, after 13 players named last Monday to play in the Test - including regular captain Chris Gayle, vice captain Denesh Ramdin, senior batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, as well as key fast bowler Jerome Taylor - chose to make themselves unavailable to protest pay and contract issues.

"Those very players would be represented by WIPA if they have an issue with the WICB," said Ramnarine.

"We are not going to do anything about the fact that they have decided to play for the West Indies at this point in time."

He added: "We are an association that represents the players and we are not about the business of making it harder for them.

"Everyone has a choice as to what they do and those guys decided to play for the West Indies and we just have to respect this."

The new-look 15-member squad, captained by long-standing Barbadian batsman Floyd Reifer, includes 11 players without Test experience.

Only Reifer, Tino Best, Darren Sammy and David Bernard Jr have previously played in Tests.

But the return of the established players looks unlikely, after a meeting between the two sides on Thursday ended after just 23 minutes.

Ramnarine feels that some progress has been made in the dispute, but the WICB seems to be sticking to their guns, and not budging on a number of issues.

A news release from the WICB stated that its negotiators headed by Vice President Dave Cameron were not going to kow-tow to the bullying tactics of WIPA.

"WICB [has] impressed upon WIPA that it was not prepared, consistent with good industrial relations practices, to negotiate under duress, and insisted that before any good faith negotiations commenced, the players' strike would first have to end," said the news release.

"As an act of good faith, the WICB has determined that, in the best interest of West Indies cricket, it will pay to its former players the sums it had offered to pay during its previous negotiations with WIPA."

But Ramnarine felt the situation did not have to deteriorate to this point if the WICB had followed through on various agreements.

"Players have been fulfilling their obligations and not being compensated for them, and that can't be right," he said.

Bangladesh play two Tests, three One-day Internationals, and a Twenty20 International on their five-week tour of the Caribbean.