The International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket’s governing body, has turned down a request from CARICOM’s Prime Ministerial Sub-committee (PMSC) for a meeting in London this month, but it is still open to discussions in the future once Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Dave Cameron is present.
ICC Chief Executive Officer Dave Richardson told PMSC chairman, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves that such a meeting would not be possible at the suggested time because the ICC would be holding its quarterly board meeting in London from April 18-20.
The PMSC had proposed a meeting with the ICC during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting during that period.
Speaking on behalf of ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar, CEO Richardson said while the body was open to a meeting with CARICOM at a “convenient date,” such a meeting would only take place once Cameron is involved.
He said Manohar is amendable to a meeting with the PMSC at a convenient date, but since Cricket West Indies is “our member, he is firmly of the view that the meeting should not take place without the attendance of the Chairman of Cricket West Indies Board, Cameron.”
The letter, which was sent to Dr. Gonsalves was copied to the prime ministers of Barbados (Frenduel Stuart), Jamaica (Andrew Holness) and Trinidad and Tobago (Dr. Keith Rowley).
The ICC’s response comes as a blow to the PMSCs urgency to discuss the much-debated matter of the restructuring of CWI’s governance, which has seen a contentious issue between CARICOM and the regional governing body over the last two and a half years.
Rowley said the objective of CARICOM’s actions was “to bring best practice to this public good of West Indies cricket.”
At a recent two-day intersessional meeting in Haiti, CARICOM adopted legal advice which confirmed they could challenge CWI’s right, as a private entity, managing the public good of West Indies cricket.
