Recently re-elected West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Dave Cameron has gotten the full support of all the territorial boards, as they bid to continue the move forward for West Indies cricket.
Cameron in an exclusive interview with the T&T Guardian said: “In the last elections I did not have the full support of all at the beginning but we were able to bring all together this will not be any different. All boards pledged their full support after the elections and we are going to continue to do our best to take the game forward.”
On March 7, 2015 Cameron was voted in for the second consecutive term as head of the regional body, defeating WICB director and president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Joel Garner 8-4 in the vote. His running mate Emmanual Nanton was re-elected to the post of vice-president by the same margin, getting the better of Baldath Mahabir from T&T.
Asked about the mood of the meeting after the election results, the Jamaican replied: ”The general mood was very good as most persons wanted us to continue the progress we have made thus far.”
Cameron and young bright Jamaican businessman had a challenging first stint after he took over from St.Lucian Dr. Julien Hunte. This is how he saw his first stint :”The successes of the first term are many, but of course the launch of the PCL (Professional Cricket League) and CPL (Caribbean Premier League) were big. We now have a proper domestic season lasting about seven months with windows for IPL (Indian Premier League) although there will be a clash this year and CPL as well as the Champions League.”
Speaking on his overall leadership style in his first two-year stint he said :””Not much I would have done differently in the first term, but would have hoped for different outcome and that has to do with our review of our the compensation system and the attendant fallout in India. We certainly did not anticipate what came out and regretted the outcome.”
The West Indies cricketers aborted their tour of India due to a payment structure dispute with their players association and this has left the WICB with a bill of US$41.97M representing losses incurred by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
That matter is still being dealt with the pretty soon the WICB will give an update on the matter.
One of the challenges in moving forward and an issue that has to get immediate attention according to Cameron is the rebranding of West Indies cricket.
“The biggest challenge ahead is the rebranding exercise of the WICB as is required. We were told at the meeting of the stakeholders that our biggest problem was our PR and communications and we are going to look at this immediately.”
