Kingston, Jamaica — The series of town-hall meetings hosted by the West Indies Cricket Board continued on Friday here.
President and Vice President, Dave Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan, were the two main speakers.
The meeting was dominated by cricket aficionados mainly from the corporate area clubs and other long standing officials. The questions, typical of town-hall meetings were varied but the audience zoned in on key issues like:
-How will be the WICB handle the overexposure of youngsters to the Twenty20 version of the game
-The absence of the senior team from the 2017 Champions trophy
-Role of regional governments in ensuring that cricket is taught in schools
-Team bonding and building for on and off the field performance
Other issues of governance, marketing and skills development were also discussed.
President Cameron in his opening remarks invited the group for a moment of silence to recognize the passing of the former WICB and Barbados Cricket Association President, Captain Peter Short.
Additionally the President summarized a number of programmes the Board is currently involved in “aiming at being efficient and effective as we as a region seek to re-invest in the sport that we all love so much”.
The Professional Cricket League which now captures up to 120 players plus officials in a pool, is hailed as one of the new programmes to re-establish the sport over the next few years.
This is PCL, the President says, “Increases the number of first class games to 10 in a season, while leaving the window open for the IPL and the CPL, offering players an additional opportunity to maximize earnings.”
The President is confident that in two to three years “we will all have a product to be proud of.”
As a result, the President noted that “the territories will have to be held (more) accountable for their operations and with the WICB’s financial input, must ensure they are in a position to find the best players for their teams”.
Vice President, Nanthan pledged the Board’s continuous drive towards unity and the coordinated approach to re-engaging the general cricket community.
Nanthan referred to the work of the newly-formed West Indies Retired Players Foundation (WIRPF) and the impact that the town-hall meetings should have. Nanthan continued to raise the issue of stakeholder involvement and the role each Caribbean citizen has to play.
The next stop should be in Antigua at a date to be announced.