Rowley, Cricket Australia discuss WI governance

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has conveyed CARICOM's position on West Indies cricket to Cricket Australia (CA), following a meeting in Melbourne.

Rowley, a member of CARICOM's Prime Ministerial sub-committee on cricket, last Friday met with Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland, along with other executive members.

He was joined in the meeting by his foreign and CARICOM affairs minister, Senator Dennis Moses, along with minister in the Office of the Prime Minister and Ministry of the Attorney General, Stuart Young.

"The discussions surrounded the history of West Indies Cricket and the recent developments in West Indies cricket, including its current state," a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said.

"The prime minister provided a briefing on the position of CARICOM leaders and how they collectively feel about the management of West Indian cricket."

Rowley and CA also discussed the role of West Indies cricket in the development of the game in Australia, while agreeing on the need for the Caribbean side to return to "a dominant position in international cricket."

Further, CA committed to supporting any efforts to help West Indies cricket in the future.

Rowley, who has been publicly critical of Cricket West Indies' management, also discussed the role of cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Council.

CARICOM is set to meet with the ICC during the Twenty20 Women's World Cup in November, to also convey its position on West Indies cricket.

The regional national grouping has been at loggerheads with CWI ever since endorsing a 2015 Governance Report, authored by UWI, Cave Hill principal Professor Eudine Barriteau, which recommended "the immediate dissolution" of the governing body.

ANTIQUATED STRUCTURE

Commissioned by CARICOM, the report slammed CWI as "antiquated", "obsolete" and "anachronistic", while calling for the appointment of an interim board "whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework."

CWI have since put up staunch resistance to the report, abelling the recommendations "impractical" and an "unnecessary and intrusive demand."

At the Intersessional in Haiti last February, CARICOM adopted legal advice suggesting there was a case to be argued on the basis of CWI, as a private entity, continuing to manage the "public good" of West Indies cricket.