Adams calls for stronger leadership in West Indies board

Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies captain who is now the president of the Federation of International Cricketers Association, has said the ongoing dispute between the West Indies board (WICB) and the local players association (WIPA) can only be solved by strong leaders in the board. Adams, who is also the WIPA secretary, said the board was currently rife with poor leadership.

"Can we get leaders who can get beyond whatever reason it is that they are at the table and genuinely say we are looking to do whatever we have to do to carry the cricket forward? I don't think that we are at that point yet," Adams told Jamaica's Sunday Observer.

On Saturday, the WICB president Julian Hunte promised the problems with the WIPA over player contracts, an issue unresolved for five years now, would be worked out during his term in office.

Adams said such issues ended up being manifested on the field. "If there is not good leadership for the 19-year-olds who will travel the world and see what proper sports management involves, by age 24 they will be rich enough to make up their own minds. Those same issues with sponsorship money, injury payments will come up again."

While the board blamed the WIPA for agreeing to discuss contracts just before the start of a series, Adams said it was the board who approached players two weeks before a tour and laid down the terms. "The board's approach to signing contracts is to approach you two weeks before a tour and say 'these are the terms', without any discussion. We say we are supposed to negotiate the contracts and when you look at certain clauses in the contracts it's unacceptable. They don't deal with some of the outstanding issues. They then say they came to WIPA and WIPA didn't agree. That's not how it goes."

Two days before the start of the first Test against Bangladesh, the WIPA announced a players' boycott of the match as it claimed they had been playing without contracts for successive series. The board put together a second-string squad for the match and then announced its "unswerving commitment" to the players who had made themselves available for selection. Adams said the original squad for the Test had not boycotted it because the opposition was Bangladesh but because the players were fed up. "In January before the England tour started, it was a split vote by members of WIPA's executive as to whether or not to play against England. It was decided that we would go ahead with the tour. The players were fed up from then coming out of the tour of New Zealand. If it were left up to me, no cricket would be played from long time. Simple.

"When we went down to St Lucia for the one-day internationals against England, the players did not want to play, because outstanding matters were still not resolved. But we said to them, 'let's go ahead, as we came out of the negotiations with the board saying it looks like we have something here to work with so let's go ahead and play'. Subsequently, things have just gotten worse."