BASSETERRE – Prominent St Kitts attorney Charles Wilkin, QC, says he was forced to step down as chair of the governance committee of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in the face of blunt resistance by territorial boards to a change in the way directors are appointed.
Wilkins, who was heading a three-man committee reviewing the structure of the WICB, says directors have flatly refused to accept any changes.
His reasons for quitting are contained in correspondence between himself and WICB president Dr Julian Hunte released late Monday.
“The territorial board directors flatly rejected the recommendations of the Governance Committee as to the restructuring of the board and refused to make any change at all to the current structure,” said Wilkin in his resignation letter to Hunte following a special meeting of the board in Barbados on September 14.
“The blunt refusal of the territorial board members to follow their own stated principles casts serious doubt on their commitment to the rest of the strategic plan and their capacity to implement same.”
The senior attorney, who was earlier this year re-elected to serve as president of the St Kitts and Nevis Bar Association, is seeking to clear the air over his decision to resign following a statement from the WICB released on Monday.
According to the statement, Wilkin offered his resignation after “the territorial boards did not agree to the implemen-tation of the full menu of recommendations”.
In addition to the ten recommendations which were agreed to, the board of directors deferred decisions on six other recommendations while not agreeing to one recommendation, the WICB statement said.
However, the main bone of contention stems from the Governance Committee’s proposal for a new method of appointing the board of directors, replacing the current territory-based approach.
The committee included financial consultant Dr Grenville Phillips and WICB director Elson Crick. (CMC)