PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

THE WEST Indies Players Association (WIPA) has advised its players to sign their match/tour contracts, paving the way for the tour of England to proceed as planned.

WIPA and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) were locked in a dispute over whether the England tour was part of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Future Tours Programme.

The matter is expected to go before a high-powered arbitration panel on May 15, almost a week after the team is scheduled to leave the Caribbean.

But in a media release late on Friday, WIPA said it advised its players to "sign the standard match/tour contract subject to the decision of the arbitration panel".

"Our decision above was made purely in the interest of West Indies cricket and our players. However, we wish to reiterate that the pre-tour contractual negotiation has been unsatisfactory and must again ask that this not be repeated," WIPA said.

news conferences

Both WIPA and the WICB were busy this week, staging news conferences to argue their side of the heavily disputed matter.

WIPA's chief executive, Dinanath Ramnarine, said on Thursday he wanted the arbitration completed prior to the team's departure on Tuesday but had stopped short of saying whether there would be strike action by players.

"We at WIPA always make a collective decision and I cannot say what the players would do," he said then.

At another media conference on Friday, the WICB's chief executive, Bruce Aanensen, said Ramnarine had been uncooperative and had hinted at strike action to stop the tour fromproceeding."The players have nothing to lose by signing the contract subject to the outcome of the arbitration," Aanensen had contended.

The Ramnaresh Sarwan-led 15-man squad is scheduled to play four Tests and three one-day internationals on the tour of England.