Contract row strikes Windies again

Port of Spain, Mar 18 (UNI) The contarct controversy came back to haunt cricket in the Caribbean with rumours doing the rounds about a possible strike by the West Indies players.

Four days into the World Cup, the timing could not have come at a worse time with written contracts to cover the series being sent to the West Indies players on Friday.

But it was not immediately clear whether the players had signed the documents.

The Player's Association president, however had a different stroy to tell.

''The players have not received any contract or signed any contracts,'' the Trinidad Express quoted president Dinanath Ramnarine as saying.

''Agreements have been reached but as far as we are concerned, we are not clear why the contracts have not been given to the players as yet,'' Mr Ramnarine said.

This latest development comes against the backdrop of disagreements between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Players Association over unresolved points surrounding the contracts.

Tony Deyal, an official of the WICB said the board needed clarification on issues which were not covered by a three-man arbitration panel earlier.

''When we went to arbitration in February, a decision was made to which we were bound. But we sought clarification on four points within the decision,'' he was quoted as saying.

However, Deyal, who met with the Windies squad on Wednesday, ended by making it plain ''We are very clear that the players are committed to victory. I don't see any matters here that cannot be resolved using the mechanisms in place in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.'' Despite the uncertainty over the direction of this latest contract problem, the West Indies players had a full training session at the Kensington ground yesterday.

The resurgent Windies are scheduled to play Zimbabwe at Sabina Park tomorrow.

UNI