Cricket

NARSINGH DEONARINE WINS ARBITRATION AGAINST THE WICB – AWARDED TT$ 500,000.00

On August 2nd, 2012, Mr. Seenath Jairam, S.C. handed down a judgement in favour of Narsingh Deonarine, in the matter of an arbitration between the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in accordance with the dispute resolution process contained in Article XI of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). WIPA was represented by its former President and CEO, Dinanath Ramnarine, and by attorneys-at-law Sushilla Jadoonanan, Donna Symmonds and Denise Haynes, while the WICB was represented by attorney-at-law Derek Ali

The matter, concerning West Indies cricketer Narsingh Deonarine, was jointly referred by letter to Mr. Jairam by the parties on March 29th, 2011. The appointment of Mr. Jairam was recommended by the WICB and agreed to by WIPA.

Narsingh made his senior debut for Guyana at the age of 17 in 2000, and subsequently captained the West Indies U-19 team. He made his debut for the senior West Indies team in 2005 against South Africa, when 7 regular members of the West Indies team were left out as a result of contract disputes.

He was offered a Retainer Contract by the WICB for the contract period October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010 and accepted the offer. This was the first time that Narsingh was offered a retainer contract. He played for the West Indies team as a retained player for the first time shortly thereafter, during the team’s tour of Australia in December 2009. On that tour he made his first Test 50 and his then highest Test score of 82.

Despite this, Narsingh was given a letter by the WICB CEO, Ernest Hilaire, dated January 11th, 2010 which stated that following a review of the reports from the Australia tour, “The WICB had concerns about your attitude to fitness and physical preparation.” The letter further claimed to not want to “highlight specific incidents.” As it turns out there was a reason for not wanting to do so.

At no time in the 30 months between the WICB’s letter of January 11th, 2010, and the ruling of the Arbitrator on August 2nd, 2012 did the WICB either offer these reports as evidence at the hearing, or produce them for the benefit of Narsingh to see precisely what had been said about him in them. We are left to only speculate about their existence.

The breaches of the agreements as found by the arbitrator have been summarized in a document entitled “Key Points re Deonarine Award”, which we have made available for you, and we will also provide you with copies of the award itself.

There are disturbing similarities in this case to the arbitrations involving Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan (both of which we have previously highlighted), as even a cursory glance at those rulings will show. In all three cases, the WICB, by its willful actions were ruled to have done the following:

        i.            Breached the Principles of Natural Justice

      ii.            Breached the Integrity of the Selection Process by not being Fair and Transparent

    iii.            Publicly Denigrated a Player

    iv.            Failed to carry out Performance Appraisals

These wilful breaches were committed by the WICB, even with the players having the protection of the CBA and MoU afforded to them. WIPA cringes at the thought of what might have been done to the players had no such agreements been in place!

Almost immediately upon taking office in 2009, WICB CEO Ernest Hilaire began a campaign to discredit the value of the established agreements between WIPA and the WICB. He went on record as saying that the agreements were “unworkable” and that the “WICB would continue to breach them.” Throughout his tenure, the WICB consistently attempted to fool the West Indian public, through misleading statements and releases, into believing that the primary reason for them having lost now 15 straight arbitrations, has been that the agreements themselves contain “ambiguous language” and that they are “heavily skewed” in favour of WIPA. Nothing could be further from the truth. The breaches that they have been found guilty of, certainly in the arbitrations involving these 3 players, have arisen simply from a failure on their part to follow the rules of an agreement which contain common and best industrial practices. The mere fact that the Arbitrator having considered all the evidence of both sides and having arrived conclusively that the agreements have been breached is a testament that the language is clear and unambiguous.

WIPA therefore encourages the regional media to not be fooled by Hilaire’s attempts to shift the blame for the breaches of the agreements on to the agreements themselves, or as he has recently done, by making reference to “flawed judgements” by the arbitrator. The truth is that he has cost the WICB, and by extension West Indies cricket, millions of dollars in scarce resources.

WIPA wishes to remind everyone that these agreements took 40 months to negotiate; that both sides utilized some of the best lawyers and industrial relations experts in the region to assist them,

and that most importantly, both parties eventually signed a document which was mutually satisfying. To claim otherwise now is to be economical with the truth.

The WICB tried 10 months ago to unilaterally terminate these agreements, and WIPA was forced to keep them in place by seeking injunctive relief from the High Court of Trinidad & Tobago. Whether this attempt by the WICB was lawful is matter which will be determined at trial commencing on October 15th.

For the sake of all West Indian cricketers we are working very hard to achieve a positive outcome.

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