ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

Regional cricket chief Julian Hunte has hit out at West Indies Players Association (WIPA) president, Dinanath Ramnarine, for having not taken the mediation process seriously.

In a strongly worded letter to CARICOM chairman, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, Hunte pointed out that Ramnarine had left for a family holiday while the process was ongoing, a breach of the terms the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) had agreed to at the start.

Talks between the two feuding parties collapsed earlier this week after mediator Sir Shridath Ramphal failed to broker a solution.

Vacation

"It is also worthwhile noting that at the meeting on August 31, from which the WIPA facilitator (Ramnarine) had absented himself to proceed on vacation with his family in Tobago, with the agreement of Sir Shridath (contrary to the prior stipulation by Sir Shridath that the proceedings could not and would not be held in the absence of either of the facilitators) the WICB team informed the mediator of its strong disapproval of the WIPA facilitator's absence, and its concern that WIPA was not taking the proceedings seriously enough," the WICB president wrote.

"It is worthwhile noting that both parties had agreed that the proceedings would continue until September 4, if necessary, and were requested to make themselves available for the entire period August 27 to September 4 for meetings in Barbados.

"Despite this agreement, two of the WIPA representatives, including its facilitator, left the island on August 30 and did not attend the meeting on August 31."

Against this backdrop, Hunte said he found it "disturbing" that the WICB had been accused of derailing the process, pointing to comments made by Sir Shridath and Jagdeo.

"The WICB team, on the other hand, was fully represented at each and every meeting of the mediation proceedings," he pointed out.

"In this regard, it is more than a little disturbing to read the comments attributed not only to Sir Shridath, but also to you and others, that seek to give the impression that the WICB was the party responsible for the unsatisfactory and premature end to the WICB/WIPA mediation proceedings."

Following the failed talks, Sir Shridath said that he believed an agreement had been possible 24 hours before the mediation ended, but said "All that changed dramatically when one party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other."

On Wednesday, Jagdeo joined the fray, blaming the board for the collapsed mediation process.

The WICB announced on Tuesday that mediation talks, aimed at solving the contracts dispute with WIPA, had failed and that the matter would now head to arbitration.