Prime Minister of Grenada and Chairman of the CARICOM Cricket Governance Committee, Dr the Right Honourable Keith Mitchell, met on Monday, 24 August, in Barbados with the Cricket Review Panel established by that Committee in consultation with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), which is reviewing the state of governance of West Indies cricket.
The meeting was hosted by Chair of the Panel, Professor Eudine Barriteau, Principal of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, and was attended by the other Panel Members – the Rt Hon. Sir Dennis Byron, President of the CCJ; Dr Warren Smith, President of the CDB; West Indies Cricket Legend, Mr Deryck Murray; and Cricket Administrator Mr Dwain Gill, President of the Grenada Cricket Association.
The Prime Minister told the Panel that it could no longer be business as usual with regard to West Indies cricket, and he instructed that there must be clear recommendations on the way forward.
The latest manifestation that West Indies cricket is in crisis is the team’s relegation out of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
According to the Prime Minister, “there was therefore need for recommendations on the governance arrangements of West Indies cricket, which would be transformative and lay the foundation for structural changes that would eventually lead to better performance of the team.”
Prime Minister Mitchell told the Panel that the CARICOM Heads of Government, the West Indies Cricket Legends and the West Indies cricketing public all had a vested interest in the future of West Indies cricket, which was a public good, and that their work had to be translated into concrete actions for the betterment of regional cricket.
He also took the opportunity to get a status report on the work of the Panel, and urged the Chair to expedite the submission of its report to the Cricket Governance Committee of CARICOM, for immediate action on the governance structure of West Indies Cricket.
GIS
