Good luck to you, Mr Skerritt
Whycliffe "Dave" Cameron’s six-year reign as president of Cricket West Indies (CWI) has come to an end.
I first met Cameron as a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Director in 2002 when Carib was a sponsor of West Indies regional cricket. He was a member of the board’s marketing committee and to be fair to him, he always tried in his own way to assist sponsors and made sure together with Darren Millien, who was the then Chief Marketing Executive, that sponsors got their mileage.
I saw him rise, surprisingly, to the post of vice-president by 2007 and then by 2013 he assumed the mantle of president. He edged out the incumbent Julian Hunte by seven votes to five.
Cameron, who certainly felt this time that he could not be defeated repeatedly pointed to his track record. When he took office in 2013, there was a deficit of approximately US$6 million. He boasted that in a couple of years they built up an accumulated balance of US$5 million. He also alluded to the fact that in 2016, the West Indies won three world titles: the Men’s Twenty20 (T20), the Women’s T20 and the Under-19 World Cup.
Just last month, the West Indies retained the Wisden trophy for the first time in 10 years and then drew the ODI series 2-2 with the No 1 ranked men’s One Day International (ODI) team in the world - England.
He boasted about the smooth relationship between the board and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) over the last five years as no other president was able to have the type of camaraderie that his board enjoyed with the president of WIPA, Wavell Hinds. He was also credited with the installation of a Professional Cricket League (PCL) in the Caribbean.
Obviously, Cameron felt he had made significant headway in the regional development of the sport, especially over the last few years and one can make the assumption that he did not campaign heavily as he felt he could not lose the election.
Unfortunately for Cameron, Ricky Skerritt ran a superb campaign bent on destroying the incumbent. He harped on his autocratic style, his arrogance as a leader and his poor relations with the region’s top players.
I first met Cameron as a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Director in 2002 when Carib was a sponsor of West Indies regional cricket. He was a member of the board’s marketing committee and to be fair to him, he always tried in his own way to assist sponsors and made sure together with Darren Millien, who was the then Chief Marketing Executive, that sponsors got their mileage.
I saw him rise, surprisingly, to the post of vice-president by 2007 and then by 2013 he assumed the mantle of president. He edged out the incumbent Julian Hunte by seven votes to five.
Cameron, who certainly felt this time that he could not be defeated repeatedly pointed to his track record. When he took office in 2013, there was a deficit of approximately US$6 million. He boasted that in a couple of years they built up an accumulated balance of US$5 million. He also alluded to the fact that in 2016, the West Indies won three world titles: the Men’s Twenty20 (T20), the Women’s T20 and the Under-19 World Cup.
Just last month, the West Indies retained the Wisden trophy for the first time in 10 years and then drew the ODI series 2-2 with the No 1 ranked men’s One Day International (ODI) team in the world - England.
He boasted about the smooth relationship between the board and the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) over the last five years as no other president was able to have the type of camaraderie that his board enjoyed with the president of WIPA, Wavell Hinds. He was also credited with the installation of a Professional Cricket League (PCL) in the Caribbean.
Obviously, Cameron felt he had made significant headway in the regional development of the sport, especially over the last few years and one can make the assumption that he did not campaign heavily as he felt he could not lose the election.
Unfortunately for Cameron, Ricky Skerritt ran a superb campaign bent on destroying the incumbent. He harped on his autocratic style, his arrogance as a leader and his poor relations with the region’s top players.
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