PORT-OF-SPAIN – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders say they will engage the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) to ascertain their positions regarding the future of the game in the region.
A statement issued after the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket (PMSC) met here, gave no indication as to when the engagement would take place, but said that other stakeholders would be invited “to ascertain their respective positions regarding the charting of a collective course forward which would not only improve the arrangements for governance of West Indies Cricket but also the performance of our players.”
CARICOM leaders at their summit in St Kitts in July, had expressed serious concerns about the relationship between WICB and WIPA as it relates to the future of West Indies cricket and the statement Monday said that the PMSC reiterated the position that “West Indies cricket belongs to the people of the region”.
The PMSC meeting, chaired by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, was also attended by Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo, Prime Minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica, the host Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Barbados Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Maxine McClean and CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque.
According to the statement, “the meeting held a critical and in-depth discussion on the current state of cricket in the region” and in particular the status of the relations between the WICB and WIPA.
“In examining the issues related to governance of West Indies cricket, the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee reiterated that West Indies cricket belongs to the people of the region, to whom the stewardship of the game must be accountable,” it said, adding that other proposals put forward “for returning the game of cricket in the region to its glorious past” include carrying out an assessment “of the prevailing arrangements for governance of West Indies Cricket to determine whether the best interests of cricket in the region and of its people are being served”.
The PMSC also said there is a need to “revisit the recommendations of the Final Report of the Committee on Governance of West Indies Cricket of 2007 (“the Patterson Report”) to determine the extent to which their implementation would impact positively on West Indies Cricket, including its future development”.
The review of the governance of West Indies cricket was commissioned by former WICB president Ken Gordon. It was headed by the former Jamaica prime minister P.J. Patterson with the other members being Dr Ian McDonald and former University of the West Indies icon, Sir Alister McIntyre.
The committee was asked to examine how the governance of West Indies cricket could be improved as well as how the current performance of the representative teams be taken to a higher level.
It was also asked to examine how might the broad base of the game, and its immediate prospects and popularity in the region, be strengthened as well as how the financial and commercial state of West Indies cricket be improved and secured on a lasting basis.
Prior to his arrival here for the meeting, Prime Minister Golding had indicated he would put forward his country’s position to the PMSC.
But the statement gave no indication as to whether or not Prime Minister Golding had raised the issue of his fellow national and former West Indies captain, Chris Gayle whose omission from the regional team has been at the centre of the latest controversy involving the WICB and WIPA.
The left-handed Jamaican batsman was left out of the recent Test and one-day series against India, following a highly charged interview with a national radio station in which he was heavily critical of the WICB.
He subsequently met with the WICB to resolve the issue but the meeting, involving WICB and WIPA officials, ended in confusion.
With no end in sight to the dispute, Gayle called for CARICOM’s intervention in the matter and chairman, St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, announced in July that the sub-committee would be re-established to deal with the issue. (CMC)
