Striking WI players to make themselves available for duty
Published:Tuesday | July 21, 2009 | 6:23 PM
Striking West Indies cricketers have now made themselves available for international duty after an arbitrator was appointed to mediate their bitter dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board, WICB.
The original 13-man squad chosen for the two-test home series against Bangladesh boycotted the series.
A replacement West Indies side was selected at the last minute and lost the series 2-0.
Former Commonwealth secretary general Sir Shridath Ramphal was named as arbitrator by the Caribbean trade bloc after it was asked by the West Indies Players Association and the WICB to mediate their dispute over pay, medical care and working conditions.
Guyana President and trade bloc chairman Bharrat Jagdeo says both sides agreed on Sir Shridath as the mediator to immediately start with help from the bloc secretariat in Guyana.
The move to mediation came hours after the board named a 14-man squad excluding the strikers for the first two of three one-day internationals against Bangladesh, on July 26 and 28.