Jermaine Lannaman, Gleaner Writer

Play in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) regional four-day championship between leaders Jamaica and the Combined Colleges and Campuses (CCC) will begin today at Sabina Park.

The WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) reached an agreement yesterday to have a meeting to discuss outstanding issues, which caused WIPA president, Dinnath Ramnarine, to resign from the WICB and led to the cancellation of first-day action yesterday in the regional competition.

The match will now be played as a three-day contest.

Leading on standings

Jamaica's coach Junior Bennett said the strike did not affect the players much, even though they were looking forward to play yesterday.

"It hasn't really affected us much. You have to be prepared for any eventuality in life. What we are hoping for is that the WICB and WIPA can iron out their differences and continue with the game of cricket," Bennett said.

Jamaica lead the standings on 84 points, 24 ahead of nearest rivals Windward Islands.

If they win this contest outright against the out-of-contention CCC, and depending on results in other matches, Jamaica would seal the title with two rounds of matches to go.

Bennett is cautious, however.

"We are 24 points ahead of the pack with three rounds of matches to go. We don't have to look at one particular match to get those 12 points. We could get two first innings in two games or so on, and that's it," said Bennett.

Both teams turned up at Sabina Park yesterday morning, only to be told officially by the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) that play for the day had been abandoned.

"Today (yesterday) has been called off and been deemed as an abandoned day," Courtney Francis, JCA acting operations officer, told the media. "There was an impasse between the WICB and WIPA. I cannot give any specific details as I myself do not have it. I just got a release from Barry Thomas (WICB chief financial officer) indicating that the games will start tomorrow."

The players strike, which affected all three 10th-round matches - the Windward Islands versus fifth-place Trinidad and Tobago in St Vincent and third-place Barbados versus fourth-place the Leeward Islands in Barbados - came on the heels of the resignation of Ramnarine yesterday.

Outstanding differences

Ramnarine, who was appointed to the board two years ago under current WICB president, Dr Julian Hunte, in an attempt to bolster the relationship between the two parties, resigned due to a number of differences between his organisation and the board.

The issues include retainer contracts, first-class fees, injury payments to players, non-implementation of updated anti-doping policies and outstanding money from the recently concluded New Zealand series.

WIPA also claimed the board had not finalised contract fees for the current series against England, the forthcoming tour of England, the West Indies' 'A' Team's fees for the match against England and the Provident Fund, which provides for players' pension.