The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) is tightening up its fiscal practices after almost $500,000 went missing from its accounts over a five-year period.
A TTCB official who wished to stay anonymous said on Thursday that the signing of blank cheques in case emergency funding is needed has been discontinued.
The decision to end the availability of blank cheques at the TTCB was made “a while ago,” the official said, as the board prepares for an independent external audit.
The audit comes after an alleged misappropriation of funds in the TTCB was revealed in mid-December, and later reported to the Fraud Squad.
Her response in a statement on Thursday, follows widespread condemnation about the Government's lack of support for the Tallawahs, which inevitably resulted in owner Kris Persaud moving the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 franchise from Jamaica to Antigua and Barbuda.
Grange pointed out that the ministry provided special support to the Tallawahs at the level that funds would permit, as they forwarded cash, and paid for coordinated services across the Government of Jamaica to facilitate the franchise. She added that the ministry’s Sports Division and the Sports Development Foundation provided direct cash payments of J$13 million to Jamaica Tallawahs, including the purchase of tickets for matches, between 2015 and 2019.
The minister said the government incurred significant direct costs as it worked to facilitate the Tallawahs, as she revealed that the Sports Development Foundation undertook the cost for the importation of goods and equipment needed for use during cricket matches.
Additionally, Grange argued that her ministry also undertook the cost for various licenses and fees including for television broadcasts, as well as, negotiated with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company to provide transport service to the Tallawahs, and with the Jamaica Tourist Board to market the team.
West Indies captain Hayley Matthews, Australia’s Elise Perry, England’s Sophie Ecclestone, and Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu have been shortlisted for the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year 2023 Award.
Three of the players on the shortlist, Perry, Athapaththu, and Matthews are all-rounders, while Ecclestone made the list for her bowling in 2023.
In 2023, Matthews scored 700 runs and took 19 wickets in 14 matches for the West Indies, meaning on just pure statistics, she tops the list of all-rounders and challenges Ecclestone’s wicket-taking masterclass.
The number-one-ranked MRF Tyres ICC Women’s T20I all-rounder put on a performance for the ages against Australia in a bilateral T20I series in the second half of the year. Her stellar showing in the series saw her score 99*, 132 and 79 as the West Indies skipper proved to be a thorn in the Australian side.
After failing to make last year's ICC 50-over World Cup for the first time in the team's history, former West Indies captain and iconic batsman Chris Gayle believes they have a shot at redemption by winning this summer's Twenty20 global showpiece in the Caribbean and United States.
The regional side missed the World Cup in India last October to November after being eliminated from the qualifiers following defeats to the likes of Zimbabwe, Scotland and the Netherlands last June. It was the first time a former World Cup champion did not participate in the limited overs tournament.
The Jamaican Gayle, who represented the West Indies at five 50-over World Cups, said the current Daren Sammy-coached team has a great opportunity to make things right in front of home fans in June.
"Just like other West Indian fans or persons, I was disappointed not seeing West Indies in the World Cup for the first time. But it's good to see them actually rebound, they just won a series against England," he told Gulf News.
MELBOURNE, Australia (CMC) — Australian Test legend Steve Waugh has urged the intervention of cricket's world governing body, International Cricket Council (ICC), in salvaging the credibility of the game's longest format, after South Africa followed West Indies' lead in selecting an understrength Test side for the two-Test tour of New Zealand.
Only last month, West Indies named seven uncapped players in a weakened 15-man squad for two Tests here later this month, and South Africa followed suit by picking an inexperienced squad — also featuring seven debutants — for their two-Test series in New Zealand next month.
The New Zealand tour has clashed with the SA20 — Cricket South Africa's lucrative, premier, T20 domestic tournament — and the leading players have been allowed to focus their efforts on the shorter format.
"It's going to happen if the South African Cricket Board are any indication of the future, keeping their best players at home," Waugh said.
