WAVELL Hinds, the president and CEO of the West Indies Players’ Association, has called for West Indies T20 captain Darren Sammy to substantiate claims that the players association compromised itself and that it could not and does not act in the best interest of all West Indies players.Sammy made those claims in a letter to WICB CEO Michael Muirhead as he sought to get increased wages for the squad of players selected to represent the West Indies at next month’s ICC T20 World Cup in India.
Sammy is seeking a doubling of the US$6900 match fee the players have been offered plus all of the US$1.6M purse, should they win the World Cup and not the 80 per cent the WICB had put on the table.
In a letter to Muirhead, Sammy wrote: “As a group we don’t accept that WIPA can represent us. WIPA became conflicted during its negotiations with you and compromised itself. It could not and did not actively represent the best interests of all West Indies cricketers…”
However, Hinds in responding to Sammy’s claims said he would like Sammy to justify his statements.
“It would be interesting to see him substantiate that claim with empirical evidence,” Hinds said.
He said the players were aware of the changes made to the payment structure from May 2015 at a retreat that was held in Barbados so he is surprised that they are only now objecting to it nine months later. (Sportsmax.com)