T&T board to stay away from WICB meeting

West Indies cricket has been thrown into further disarray after the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) decided to stay away from the West Indies board's annual general meeting of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in Antigua starting Sunday.
TTCB president Deryck Murray said the local board wanted to send a signal to the WICB that this was not a time for "business as usual". Last month the TTCB chief executive Forbes Persaud had hinted that the national team could go its own way in international cricket if the WICB administration set-up didn't change. But Murray made it clear that the decision to stay away from the meeting did not mean the TTCB intended to break away.
"I want to be clear," Murray said. "This is not a threat to the unity of West Indies cricket ... In this time of crisis, we cannot afford to sit back and keep doing the same things over and over again. That is not doing anything for our cricket. Our hope is that this move could be the catalyst for the change of West Indies cricket at the top.
"They must understand that we the board and the people of Trinidad & Tobago expect and demand that things be done differently from here on in."
This coincides with the latest in the long-running dispute over contracts between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) that led to the withdrawal of the leading players from the recent series against Bangladesh and that is now before former Commonwealth secretary-general Sir Shridath Ramphal for mediation.
As one of the six constituent members of the WICB - along with Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands - the TTCB has two directors on the executive and two representatives on the board.
It is understood that among their grievances is the WICB's failure to act on the main recommendations of the report into their governance by a committee headed by former Jamaica prime minister PJ Patterson.
The report, commissioned by the WICB under former president Ken Gordon and presented in 2006, proposed the complete restructuring of the board that is now made up of the president, vice-president, two directors from each of the territorial members and three ex-officio directors. It is understood the TTCB letter emphasised that they had no intention of quitting the WICB or intending to go on their own. It simply stated their frustrations at not being able to influence changes within the organisation.
It would have been further aggravated by the announcement that president Julian Hunte and vice-president Dave Cameron are both to be returned to their positions unopposed. It was earlier stated that Murray, the former West Indies vice-captain, would challenge Hunte and that Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president Joel Garner would go against Cameron. But both eventually declined the nominations.
Hunte, 69, has served on the board, on and off, since 1973. He took over as president from Gordon in 2007. Since then, the WICB has been embroiled by one controversy after another, culminating in the latest that left West Indies with a decimated team that lost both Tests and all three one-day internationals against Bangladesh.
The TTCB are also locked in a similar contracts dispute with the WIPA for a squad of 33 in preparation for the Trinidad and Tobago team's participation in the Champions League in India in October that features winning teams from domestic Twenty20 competitions
It is not the first time the TTCB have been at odds with the WICB. In 1994, they issued a statement in which they expressed their "grave concern over what is perceived to be an organised and calculated plot by a privileged few to deny Trinidad and Tobago and its cricketers their just due".