St. John’s Antigua : West Indies Cricket Board Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ernest Hilairesays this year WICB host Pakistan and India and it would be “a very good year for us.”
He said financial situation of WICB is “quite stable. One of features of cricket boards around the world is nature of Future Tours Program. Primarily income comes from media rights. Depending on who you host in year your income can vary significantly. So last year WICB would have had a very lean yearbecause we hosted South Africa and Zimbabwe. Both were loss making tours for us.
“This year we host Pakistan and India so it would be a very good year for us. The year before (2009) we had England and in 2008 India played four ODIs. So we have this roller coaster in terms of our financial performance. We expect next year to be a very good year.”
On performance related pay, he said Board is currently discussing various models for compensation of players. A decision will be made shortly. “We recognize need for us to provide greater incentives to players to perform. WICB will propose to WIPA and players that there is a very strong component of performance related pay."
On whether there is a restraint of trade issue relating to participation in Indian Premier League IPL,he said BCCI agreed that it will only allow players to play in IPL if they are not chosen to representtheir country in international matches. So as long as WICB selects a player, no IPL franchise will letthat player play.
“So when players were told don’t sign your (WICB retainer) contract because it means you can go to IPLthey were being misled. If they don’t sign contracts and we select them, franchise will not let them play. They can decide they are not playing for West Indies but even then they still cannot play in IPLbecause we would have selected them to play for West Indies. All countries agreed that international cricket must be given priority,” he added.
