St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has been appointed to chair the CARICOM committee to look into the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) issue of governance and reform.
This was disclosed by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley at a news conference at the VIP lounge at Piarco International Airport after his arrival from a CARICOM meeting in Guyana recently.
Rowley said at the last CARICOM meeting, there was consensus from the heads that the report of the Dr Eudine Barriteau-led review panel should be accepted in its entirety — a move that was subsequently opposed by the WICB.
He said there were two committees — one on governance and another on governance and reform.
The T&T prime minister said Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell who headed the committee on reform has retired from the position.
Rowley said the heads of government agreed to the merging of both committees to treat with all aspects of West Indies cricket to be chaired by Gonsalves and with designated members from Antigua and Jamaica to push the way forward.
He said two legal opinions were sought on the WICB issue — one from the CARICOM secretariat and the other from an independent senior counsel, who advised that “we cannot force the West Indies Cricket Board to cooperate.”
But, he said, there was never any intention to do so, adding that the intention was that the board, in the face of the Barriteau panel’s findings, would have done like the Australian authorities did and allow an arrangement to be put in place for an interim structure to be established.
