GEORGETOWN: Efforts by former Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal to end a raging dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indian Players Association (WIPA) collapsed just when the two sides appeared to be on the brink of a resolution, authorities said late Tuesday.

"It was another bad day for West Indian cricket which, without fundamental changes, is now likely to deteriorate further," the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) headquarters quoted Ramphal in a statement as saying.

Ramphal, who was appointed the mediator on July 21 after the current Caricom chairman - Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo - met with top representatives of the WICB and WIPA--explained that the two sides had 24 hours before been close to an agreement but the talks were derailed after one side tabled a new draft agreement.

The mediator recalled that the negotiations were at a stage that had prompted him to invoke assistance "of various kinds to make implementation of the agreement feasible. "However, all that changed dramatically when one party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other," the statement added.

No immediate mention was made of the contentious areas or which side had proposed the new draft agreement.

President Jagdeo, in a separate statement, said he was "disappointed to learn of the failure" of WICB and WIPA to reach agreement. He noted that "I am not wholly surprised" at the collapse of the talks and blamed the WICB for failing to disclose to him and WIPA that the board had already selected a "B" team for the Champions Trophy in South Africa.

"The President (of the board) later apologised for the omission; but the damage had been done; the Mediation was weakened from the start. Now, it seems that the Mediation has been the victim of the same spirit of board insistence on getting its own way whatever the consequences for our cricket," said Jagdeo.

He explained that, at the time of agreeing to mediation, he was led to believe that normalcy would have been restored once WIPA had made all of its players available to the board for selection.

"Caricom governments will have to consider what next to do to save West Indies cricket, and West Indians, everywhere, from still further humiliation," said the Guyanese leader.

The West Indies has been on a largely losing streak for more than one decade.