GCB blocks WIPA

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

The Guyana Cricket Board (GCC) has moved swiftly to head off a brewing confrontation with WIPA, obtaining an interim court injunction to prevent the regional players, union and its associates from further involvement with the Champions League-bound Guyana squad.

With all signs pointing to another cricket dispute, following stern comments from WIPA earlier this week regarding players' image rights and the disbursement of prize money for the lucrative Twenty20 Champions League, lawyers for the GCB filed for and obtained the injunction on Thursday in the Guyana High Court before acting Chief Justice Ian Chang.

In addition to WIPA, the injunction also bars its president, Dinanath Ramnarine, and players' image rights management company, WIPMACOL, from acting on behalf of the Guyana players.

"The injunction that has been filed by the Guyana Cricket Board is against WIPMACOL, which is an entity that claims to hold the intellectual property and image rights of all the players and WIPA, ... which has no arrangement with the Guyana Cricket Board and Dinanath Ramnarine ...," Sanjeev Datadin, one of the lawyers representing the GCB, told CMC Sports in an interview from Guyana late Saturday.

Datadin told CMC Sports that the injunction became necessary after WIPMACOL indicated to the GCB that it held the players, intellectual property and image rights, and that it had appointed WIPA as its exclusive bargaining representative.

Ramnarine then wrote to the GCB requesting that a fee equivalent to 75 per cent of the prize money be paid for the use of these players' rights.

According to Datadin, this was after the GCB, the Guyana players and the Champions League T20 had already entered into a contractual agreement regarding the very same rights issues.

He said Ramnarine's proposal made no provision for the payment of auxiliary staff, unless the team reached the semi-finals of the September 10-26 showpiece in South Africa, a suggestion that was untenable.

"How could that agreement now come into place when they (players) had already signed off on an agreement?" queried Datadin.

"It's unfortunate that we live in a day and age where people have signed an agreement and then will be influenced by other third parties to breach and to interfere with the contractual relationships that have been created by that agreement.

"So what the Guyana Cricket Board decided to do was take legal proceedings to protect itself."

Several issues

Datadin said the GCB regarded the contracts players had signed with WIPMACOL as invalid, as there were several issues surrounding these agreements that needed to be questioned.

Chiefly, Datadin argued, was the fact that under these contracts, players were not entitled to make any decisions concerning their own rights, but rather needed WIPMACOL's permission.

"It was clear to us from players who had signed these agreements that they might not have been aware of what they signed and they had received no compensation whatsoever under it," Datadin pointed out.

"The Guyana Cricket Board takes the position that those agreements are invalid and unenforceable."

He reiterated that under the CLT20 contract signed by the players, all intellectual property and image rights issues would be handled by that relevant company.

This, Datadin said, he conveyed to Ramnarine indicating that the GCB could not, therefore, enter into negotiations on the matter and that he would need to speak to CLT20 directly.

Injunction obtained

"Because of the rhetoric and because what the players were saying was coming ... we obtained an injunction that refrains him (Ramnarine) from doing any act which might take the shape of causing the breach of the contract."

Along with Datadin, prominent Queen's Counsel Sir Fenton Ramsahoye is also representing the GCB.

In a media release earlier this week, WIPA questioned the assertion by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the GCB that they could not negotiate the use of players' image rights.

"WIPA doubts that this can be correct, because the WICB is obligated under the Team Participation Agreement to procure use of the players attributes to ensure the full and successful exploitation of the commercial rights," the release said.

"Further, no other team negotiates with CLT20 for consideration of the obligations and restrictions of players - that is a matter (and quite rightly so) between the Board that is obligated to procure these rights, obligations and restrictions and the players, and their player representatives, through negotiations."