Lucky gives up WICB positions

Justice Anthony Lucky yesterday announced his resignation, "with immediate effect" from all positions with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in which he has "lost confidence".

Currently in Hamburg. Germany, where he is serving as a Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Lucky, who headed the three-man review into the circumstances of Digicel as the new sponsor of West Indies cricket, said in a telephone interview: "I have had enough of the lack of transparency and accountability from those in the WICB who are contemptuous of dissenting views and I cannot any longer work with them..."

Lucky told the Trinidad Express that he "remains committed to assist in any way possible West Indies cricket, but not under the current administration now under the presidency of Ken Gordon, and particularly in view of a continuity of a process under the leadership of former President Teddy Griffith"

His decision to part company with the WICB came a day after Barbadian business executive, Rawle Brancker wrote to Caricom Heads of Government outlining why there should be "a due diligence and forensic audit exercise" into management transactions by Cricket World Cup 2007. Brancker resigned as chairman of the company, pointing to lack of transparency and accountability in its management. Yesterday, Justice Lucky said he admired the stand taken by Brancker.

The judge headed the WICB's code of conduct and discipline committee and also served as their representative on the International Cricket Council's code of conduct committee before being appointed in June this year to chair the review committee that probed how Digicel replaced Cable and Wireless as new sponsor of West Indies cricket.

A judge of 16 years in Trinidad and Tobago before his election in 2003 to serve with the International Tribunzal for the Law of the Sea, Lucky said that his resignation would be formally communicated to the WICB on his return home. He said he had earlier indicated to his committee colleagues, Avondale Thomas and Gregory Georges, that they should not only collectively respond to the WICB directors' rejection of their findings as outlined in their report but also consider terminating their relations with the Board.

The joint statement disagreeing with the board's criticisms of their findings was made, said Lucky and now that he was resigning with immediate effect, it was entirely a matter for Thomas and Georges to make their own decisions. "Personally", he declared, "I consider it an affront to my integrity that the WICB directors, among them Mr Gordon to whom I had presented two signed copies of our report, should have been so contemptuous in failing to extend to us the simple courtesy of a meeting to discuss our findings and recommendations and let us know of their areas of disagreement...

"Instead", added Lucky, "they chose to criticise the findings in a self-serving manner and up to today have failed to meet with the committee they felt compelled to establish in the wake of widespread public concerns across the Caribbean about the implications of the still secret sponsorship contract signed with Digicel..."