Morality and Good Sense Prevail
Mon, Jul 14, '03
On the cricket field, the West Indies have a reputation of being the most unpredictable and exciting team. This reputation was enhanced, confirmed, and mirrored in off field events when on Sunday 13th July 2003, the WICB stopped on the edge of the precipice and avoided plunging into the abyss of disrepute.
In an emphatic show of political and moral resolve the shareholders of the WICB in AGM ended Chetram Singh's Presidential bid without even a vote being cast.
The meeting began on or about midday with Singh being the only candidate on the slate for the Presidency. Readers will recall that in the previous week Singh, in an interview with the Barbados media, dismissed the notion of his unsuitability as a candidate as it related to him representing the WICB as a director on the ICC Executive Board.
Confident that his colleagues in the WICB Executive, led by outgoing President Wes Hall, could not do otherwise but crown him as the new supremo, Singh was unaware of a groundswell of opposition coming out of left field which was being mounted to prevent his confirmation as President.
The meeting was steeped in intrigue and confusion. Since the ousting of Rousseau and Joseph two years ago, this represented the most important challenge to the unusual power and domination of the Executive Committee and President Wes Hall.
It was anticipated that the Jamaicans and Windward Islanders were the only threat, but joined by the BCA who had instructed their representative not to support Singh and Banks, the vision of a lame duck presidency filled Singh's eyes and a drowsy numbness must have pained his senses as though he had partaken of some forbidden fruit.
Now, we all know that Singh is a numbers man - he already knew that he could not engage in any betting at the ICC - but he was prepared to evaluate the odds at the WICB. He was not prepared to mount his throne on 8-6 odds. He wanted much better odds to allow him to stage an effective Presidency.
The odds declined with what insiders say was the unkindness cut of all when Richard DeSouza asked him to withdraw his candidacy. A distraught Singh on the stroke of lunch withdrew his candidacy and entered the history books of West Indies cricket as the first unopposed Presidential nominee not to be elected. As expected, Singh did not join his colleagues, WICB staff and members for lunch and sat by himself as he reflected bitterly and solemnly on the events of the morning.
The debate over his suitability as a President was also waged outside of the WICB boardrooms and was exhaustive. I genuinely share his disappointment, but as I said in my article "Where is the WICB Headed", stage a WICB cricket election in the midst of the hurricane season in Dominica, on Sunday 13th, with a history of candidates being abandoned at the eleventh hour, glorious uncertainties were possible.
Insiders report that Val Banks was elected as Vice President in an 8-6 compromise election. Hall voted for Banks who cast his ballot for himself. Readers will recall that Singh had asked Banks to be his running mate for purposes of continuity, and the Board could not deal with leaving the ship leaderless and rudderless after leaving Dominica. Nominations will be invited for a new election will be held in due course to elect or select a President.
In the meantime Banks will have to ponder if his position is tenable in the circumstances. The EC has been challenged and found wanting - Banks must free his new President of the stain of the past two years and resign after the election.
Similairly, DeSouza and Alleyne must now re-evaluate their positions not only in the WICB but in the TTCBC and the BCA. The elections for the BCA are one week away and BCA members with their eyes now wide open to the shenanigans in which Alleyne has been involved are set to send him packing like his co-conspirator Singh. It is said that Alleyne spent the week shamefully denying the allegations concerning him to which I referred in my previous piece in CaribbeanCricket.com.
Morality and good sense emerged as winners this weekend. Corruption, dishonesty and a lack of transparency came in a poor second as the winds of change blow through the adminstrations of West Indies cricket.
