Griffith Wins in 9-4 Vote

In the end, the vote wasn't nearly as close as everyone was predicting.

Teddy Griffith, the 67-year-old Barbadian businessman, was elected president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in a 9-4 vote Tuesday that signalled a closing of ranks in the board's executive committee.

Griffith, the former Barbados and Jamaica all-rounder who appeared in 25 first-class games in the 1950s and 1960s, was the executive committee's consensus candidate and although there were rumblings that Guyana's Chetram Singh was unhappy with his nomination, the final result showed a level of unity among the board's status quo.

For Joseph, a former WICB vice president under Pat Rousseau who was nominated by the Leewards and seconded by Jamaica, the defeat is sure to sting. There had been pre-election rumblings that Griffith's health struggles would lead to a last-minute withdrawal but that did not materialise at Tuesday's election in Antigua.

Griffith has served for many years as the WICB's chief financial negotiator and as chairman of its marketing committee. Over the last decade, he has helped draft the WICB's strategic plans and negotiated the TV rights deal with Sky, hailed as one of the most lucrative in the international cricket.