The Caribbean will host two of the world’s leading cricket teams — Australia and South Africa — in a three-nation One-Day International tournament in June next year.
This was revealed by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), who said host West Indies will square-off with reigning One-Day World champions Australia and current World No.3 South Africa in a 10-match tournament over a three-week period between June 6 – 26 next year.
“This tournament promises to be very exciting with two of the world’s top teams coming to the Caribbean,” said WICB Manager Cricket Operations Ronald Holder.
The tournament opens with round-robin matches to be contested at the Guyana National Stadium.
Teams will then travel to St. Kitts, for another series of matches at Warner Park before moving to Barbados for the final round of matches at Kensington Oval, culminating with the final.
“Australia won the ICC Cricket World Cup on home soil earlier this year and South Africa are highly-ranked in this format, but are also No.1 side in Tests,” said Holder.
Meanwhile, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has requested an “urgent meeting” with the embattled West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to discuss a Cricket Review Panel report which is strongly recommending dissolution of the WICB.
The Cricket Review Panel, which was appointed by the CARICOM sub-committee of Cricket Governance, is also recommending the appointment of an interim board to run the affairs of the sport in the region.
Dr. Mitchell, who is chairman of CARICOM’s Cricket Governance Committee told a media conference in Grenada on Wednesday that contact has already being made with the WICB regarding the critical meeting that could ultimately determine the future of the board and the sport in the region.
He said the major recommendations arising from the report was the “immediate dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board and the appointment of an interim board whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework.”
Also, the panel recommended the appointment of an interim board and a change management expert to run the affairs of cricket in the region until the new governance structure could be implemented.
The Grenadian prime minister said these recommendations would be discussed at the proposed meeting.
Mitchell, however, acknowledged that there were reports with recommendations already before the WICB, which had not been implemented.
He stressed, though, that the current report was different as it had the full backing of CARICOM heads who were deeply concerned by the decline of the game in the region.
The Cricket Review Panel, which was chaired by UWI Cave Hill Campus principal, Professor Eudine Barriteau, also recommended the resignation of the entire board membership.
