CWI To Meet Again Shallow: Barbados, Guyana Boards Won’t Stop Governance Decision

CRICKET West Indies (CWI) president Dr Kishore Shallow is urging members of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) to attend a special meeting of the Board next month to discuss issues relating to governance reform.

However, he said whether or not the two territorial boards attend the meeting, a decision will be made on the matter.

“This time, I can state with a measure of certitude that we are going to proceed and progress with governance reform at that special meeting,” Shallow said on WESN TV last Friday.

The BCA and the GCB did not attend the CWI meeting on December 6 to vote on governance reform, causing the meeting to be adjourned because a quorum was not met.

The meeting was called with the intention of voting on the Wehby Report’s recommendations.

“Governance reform has been on the table for well over two years and we have had meetings with shareholders and other stakeholders,” Shallow said.

“So there have been opportunities to discuss this matter, however this special meeting gives them another platform where they can come and present their case and convince the other shareholders to understand and appreciate their positions and I urge them and I have done so directly and now I want to urge them publicly to come and attend the meeting and discuss the matters,” he continued.

Of the idea of a rotational policy for the CWI presidency which the BCA has proposed, Shallow said: “It is nonsensical in my opinion.” And the CWI president does not see it reducing the “politics in cricket”.

The BCA and GCB had complained that CWI had ignored their calls for discussion to review how the president and vice-president of CWI are arrived at.

“It (the rotation proposal) hasn’t been in any way processed properly and ventilated,” Dr Shallow argued. “In fact, when the suggestion was discussed at the Governance Committee level, it was rejected. And we discussed it also at the CWI level and there too it was rejected, because there is no meaningful way of how this thing will work,” Shallow explained.

He continued: “How will you go about selecting the president and vice-president when it is rotational. Let’s use the president as an example. One of the excuses given for proposing this approach is to reduce the politics in cricket. How are you going to reduce it when nationally, you are going to be electing a candidate to be president?”

“Up to this point, no one has said whether it is going to be automatically the president of the territorial board who is going to be president of CWI, or if the territorial board is going to identify somebody in their country. Either way, there is still politics involved. I would argue that there would be even more politics,” Shallow contended

“The example I will use is that the last BCA elections, you had three members of the board contesting for the president. You had the incumbent president being challenged by his vice-president and his secretary, so what politics are you trying to get around? And that is why I said it is an excuse,” he added.

Shallow said the special meeting next month will provide the “perfect platform for you to come and lay out your case…come to the meeting and discuss.

“One thing that is certain under my leadership is an inclusive approach. Everyone gets a voice and an opportunity to voice their opinion,” Shallow added.

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