WICB to focus on cricket development

A greater emphasis on improving the Cricket product in the four Windward Islands is among several major decisions emerging from last Friday and Saturday’s retreat of the Windward Islands Cricket Board (WICB), held in St Lucia.

Among the new developments will be the selection of 12 elite female players, three from each territory, to be placed on six-month retainer contracts. Additionally, each group will be assigned a paid coach.

And, the WICB will create the new role of Technical Director, with each island having an Operations Manager/ Development Officer.

Other cricket decisions include a bilateral series across the Windward islands for emerging players, while the Advancing Cricketers through Education (ACE) programme will be expanded to accredited courses.

Also carded, is the reintroduction of competitive cricket across age levels for males and females.

On the matter of the governance structure of the WICB, there will be several reforms.

Among these reforms is that the offices of President, Vice President and CEO will be renamed Chair, Vice Chair and Executive Director respectively.

Reform of the electoral process will see nominations open six weeks before the Annual General Meeting (AGM), and close 30 days before the actual elections; while for the purpose of voting at an AGM, two alternate Directors from each of the national associations will be the electorate instead of the two appointed Directors.

The retreat also passed a resolution that the positions of Secretary and Treasurer will be subjected to Terms of Reference, which would include professional Legal and Financial backgrounds, respectively, with the Secretary and Treasurer becoming voting members on Administrative matters.

The WICB noted that the cricket changes will take immediate effect, while the constitutional and governance reforms will be in place from the upcoming AGM, due in May.

President of the WICB, Dr. Kishore Shallow who said that he was pleased with the outcome of the retreat, referred to the various changes as “a defining moment in Windwards Cricket and undoubtedly an exciting time to be involved as we modernize cricket administration in this sub-region”.