WICB set for new structure

A new governing structure for the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is expected to be finalised at a stakeholders' meeting in March 2009. The development comes after a meeting of the CARICOM's prime ministerial sub-committee on cricket under new chairman Baldwin Spencer, Antigua and Barbuda's prime minister.

"Out of that [meeting in March] will come hopefully an understanding as to how we are going to proceed with the creation of a new governance structure for the West Indies Cricket Board," Spencer told the CMC agency. "In the meantime the expectation is that the prime ministerial sub-committee will meet at least once to receive a report from the president of the WICB."

The sub-committee reviewed the recommendations of the governance committee, led by former Jamaican prime minister PJ Patterson, on the management of the game in the region as well as the board's draft strategic plan, and found some common ground between the two.

"What came out of our deliberations are that there are major areas of agreement between the committee's report and the draft strategic plan that has been put forward by the West Indies Cricket Board," Spencer said. "The issue of the development of a governing structure that will drive the process of West Indies cricket in the future is a matter that will occupy the attention of the board moving forward."

However, Spencer added that while the governance committee will have future meetings with stakeholders that it won't take over from the WICB. "As it stands now, the board is the shareholder of the company if you like, and what you need is to get the stakeholders involved at the broadest possible level."

The WICB was represented president Julian Hunte and chief executive officer Donald Peters at the meeting in Antigua.