Wilkin resigns after WICB rejects governance recommendations
Mon, Oct 1, '12
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has rejected the main recommendations of its Governance Committee, leading to the immediate resignation of chairman Charles Wilkin.
Wilkin's committee, which also included Dr Grenville Phillips and WICB director Elson Crick, submitted a report with 17 recommendations but the territorial boards rejected the main points that dealt with the restructuring of the board.
The main recommendation that dealt with the reduction of the directors was rejected without much deliberation, according to a source familiar with the issue.
"They didn't want to vote to fire themselves," said the source with a chuckle.
After the meeting, the WICB released a statement with an attempt to put a positive spin on yet another PR debacle. This is the third time that a major committee has submitted recommendations to the board that were effectively dismissed (Lucky Report and Patterson Report).
From the WICB statement:The Territorial Boards of the West Indies Cricket Board, at a specially convened meeting to deliberate on governance on September 14th in Barbados, agreed to ten of the 17 recommendations of the Governance Committee Report.
The Governance Committee was chaired by Mr. Charles Wilkin QC and includes Dr. Grenville Phillips and WICB Director Elson Crick.
Under Wilkin’s chairmanship the Governance Committee was tasked by the Board of Directors with reviewing the governance structure of the WICB.
In addition to the 10 recommendations which were agreed to, the Board of Directors also deferred decisions on six other recommendations while not agreeing to one recommendation.The dismissal of the substantive recommendations has led to the resignation of Mr Wilkin from the Governance Committee.
"Mr. Wilkin offered the reason for his resignation being that the Territorial Boards did not agree to the implementation of the full menu of recommendations," the WICB said.
More from the WICB release: While expressing regret at his resignation Dr. Hunte, accepted the resignation and thanked Mr. Wilkin for his sterling services to West Indies cricket. “Mr. Wilkin and his committee spent a considerable amount of time and effort and the recommendations provided as part of their report were thoroughly perused and studied by the WICB Board of Directors then sent to the Territorial Boards for their review and consideration,” Dr. Hunte said. “The Board is pleased that the Territorial Boards were able to formally agree to and commit to adopting ten of the 17 recommendations while taking more time to deliberate on a further six recommendations, hopefully for implementation in due course,” Dr. Hunte added. The Territorial Boards, the shareholders of the WICB, are of the view that governance restructuring – in light of the diverse nature of cricket in the West Indies – needs to be adopted in a phased manner and the agreement to ten of the recommendations is the first significant step to overall governance restructuring. “The issue of governance restructuring can only be done with the agreement of the shareholders, the Territorial Boards, and I am encouraged that the journey of the restructuring of West Indies cricket has been significantly advanced and will continue to move forward in a robust manner,” Dr. Hunte said. Hailing Wilkin’s work on the WICB Governance Committee as critical to the advancement of governance in West Indies cricket Dr. Hunte wished the esteemed Queen’s Counsel from St Kitts and Nevis the very best in his future endeavours.