The West Indies has been plunged into another contract crisis only a few weeks out from the Twenty20 World Cup with skipper Darren Sammy penning a letter to the board of the cash-strapped cricketing basket case asking for an urgent review of the squad's salary for the tournament.
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The 2012 champions, who are ranked No.2 in the world heading into next month's tournament in India, are on the brink of another major dispute with their administration after Sammy slammed the financial terms on offer for the 15-man squad.
He claimed all bar one member of the squad were not part of the West Indies Players Association, who had negotiated the players' cut of revenue the West Indies Cricket Board would receive from the tournament.
"The 2015 World Cup took place with the WI squad remunerated under the terms and conditions that had been in place for the World Cups previous - ie that 25% of income received by the WICB for participating in the tournament was distributed to the squad," Sammy wrote to the board , according to Cricinfo.
"We do not understand - nor accept - just one year later being offered contracts to participate in a major ICC World Cup that show such huge financial reductions. We want to represent the West Indies but the financials on offer we can't accept."
He said while "not being privy" to the exact sweetener the West Indies Cricket Board would receive for the tournament, he understood US$8m would be paid to the board with 25 per cent - or US$133,000 per player - to be distributed to the squad.
But Sammy said under the terms offered by the board the squad would receive just US$414,000 in total.
His argument was quickly quashed by Michael Muirhead, the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board, who said Sammy's figures were "totally incorrect" and the International Cricket Council had tinkered with its policy of distributing funds to member nations.
"While it is true that WICB has previously calculated compensation to the ICC event squad members as a percentage of the ICC distribution received in relation to the particular event; because of the reason outlined above, it is not possible to calculate a percentage to be paid to the squad, as the ICC distribution is no longer being made in the traditional manner," Muirhead replied.
"The WICB, in recognition of this, and in an effort at fairness and transparency, allocates 25% of WICB revenues estimated over a four year period - including ICC distributions - to players, through a guaranteed minimum revenue pool, out of which player payments are made."
Muirhead said the West Indies' Twenty20 World Cup contracts were still expected to be signed by Monday morning (AEDT).
Sammy is one of six players to be named in the West Indies' provisional squad for the Twenty20 World Cup who elected to play in the Big Bash League instead of featuring in the one-time cricketing superpower's 2-0 Test series defeat against Australia.
The skipper - along with Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons and Samuel Badree - all preferred the bright lights of the Big Bash instead of donning the whites in the long form. Kieron Pollard would have played in the tournament barring a knee injury.
