Joel Garner slams recommendation of dissolving WICB

[JUGRAJ SINGH]

Prime VIP
Staff member
Joel Garner, the legendary West Indian fast bowler and current president of Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), has lambasted the regional government's controversial recommendation of dissolving the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

The panel was set up last year following an agreement in a meeting between the WICB and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) Cricket Governance sub-committee, the latter consisting of prime ministers Gaston Browne of Antigua & Barbuda, Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Grenadas Dr Keith Mitchell.

Garner launched a tirade against the political interference while speaking at the 2016 BCA quarterly meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, two Mile Hill, St. Michael.

Speaking to an audience that included cricketers like Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Wesley Hall and Desmond Haynes, Garner informed that the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on cricket in the West Indies had written a detailed letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) as well as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), explaining them about the current impasse between the national board and its players.

Lashing out at the attitude of the politicians, Garner questioned their commitment towards the game and asked about the monetary contributions towards its welfare. Terming the proposal to dissolve the national board as 'irrational', the pace-bowling great questioned the practicality of such a move which impeded upon the freedom of the legitimate national boards - which couldn't be simply struck down at the whims and fancies of the government.

"My questions are: Is the BCA which was constituted by an act of Parliament in 1933, an illegal entity and my selection as president of the BCA an illegal act?" Garner said.

"So I have to ask the question: Is the GCB (Guyana Cricket Board) an illegal entity? Is the Jamaica Cricket (Association) an illegal entity? Is the Leeward Islands Cricket Association an illegal entity? Is the Windward Islands Cricket Board an illegal entity? Is the TTCB (Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board) an illegal entity?"

He continued: "If they are so, they have all been established in countries in which the prime ministers are making noise and they have to tell the public of the region if these entities are illegal, how they were able to remain vibrant for so long."

While proposing the dissolution of the WICB, the governance panel had also recommended the appointment of an 'interim panel' to overlook all the activities, and "whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework."

While Caricom, which had set up the panel, was ready to accept all the recommendations made by the panel, the WICB, led by its president, Dave Cameron, had rejected the panel's findings as an "unnecessary and intrusive demand."

The board also argued that the panel was limited in its scope and wasn't supported by any facts. "The dissolution of the board is simply not a viable legal or practical option and carries a major financial risk which the panel either ignored or was unaware of," the WICB had told Caricom in a written response earlier this year.
 
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