Sport - Cricket

Ramnarine lashes out at WICB

St John's (Antigua): West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) President Dinanath Ramnarine has hit out at the country's cricket board for excluding Dwayne Bravo from the list of contracted cricketers, saying that the move was in breach of ICC regulations.

``I'm surprised, I'm disappointed, I'm shocked,'' he said.

``I can't believe we will go back down this road again. We have a ruling, we have an ICC ruling, a FICA ruling which binds us. They are now breaching that ruling by saying 'we are going to punish somebody for having a pre-existing contract','' he added.

Bravo was left out of the list of seven players, who were offered retainer contracts, due to his contract with Cable and Wireless, the main rivals of West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) sponsors Digicel.

The WICB said Bravo would be offered tournament-based contra-ct. Ramnarine said WICB did not honour the agreement to discuss the list of contracted players and the criteria for their selection with WIPA before making it public.

``I am extremely disappointed that the board would seek to announce the retained players in the media after having signed an agre-ement to provide us with that information, as well as the category, as well as the criteria for selecting those players,'' Ramnarine said.

``That was not done and we have to see it in a press release. That is highly unprofessional and it says a lot about the manner in which this WICB under Mr (Ken) Gordon,'' he added. — UNI

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