(Jamaica Gleaner) Former Jamaica and West Indies fast bowler, Michael Holding, says it was ‘unrealistic’ for Clive Lloyd to run for president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) given his recent run-ins with the board over the Guyana government setting up an Interim Management Committee (IMC) to take control of the running of the sport in the South American country.
According to Holding, Lloyd, who resigned as a member of WICB to become chairman of the IMC, would have no doubt drew the ire of other members of the board, and to come in the end and seek their support was illogical.
“I thought it was unrealistic that Lloyd would have been nominated,” Holding told The Sunday Gleaner.
“If you are a member of a board, and you resign from that board because, according to the board, you are going against their wishes by taking up the chairmanship of the IMC, you can’t then expect that same board to go and vote for you to go and lead them.
“It is just not human nature and it just does not make any sense. In fact, it is illogical to think that were to happen,” he added.
Lloyd, the highly decorated former West Indies captain, has been chairman of the IMC since it was set up close to a year now by the Guyana government to manage the country’s cricketing affairs.
According to the government, there was a need for the IMC after initial investigations revealed widespread corruption at the GCB, including fraudulent internal elections and the misappropriation of funds.
The GCB has strongly denied the allegations.
The WICB, and, later the ICC, however, condemned the setting up of the IMC, describing it as government interference, and reaffirmed the GCB as the sole governing body for the sport in the country.
Interestingly, however, Lloyd, who has not publicly resigned from the IMC, eventually sought the nomination of the GCB in his bid for president, and it was granted.
He, however, failed to pick up a required second nomination from one of the other five regional cricketing territories.
He reportedly approached the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) and the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), however, both declined.
Fourth consecutive term
The TTCB said it wanted to remain neutral heading into the polls, while the BCA decided to stick with incumbent Dr Julian Hunte, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term.
Dr Hunte, meanwhile, was also nominated by the Leeward Islands Cricket Association.
He will go up against incumbent vice-president and Jamaican businessman, Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron, who was nominated by the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control and the Jamaica Cricket Association.
The election is set for later this month with the six territories having two votes each.
If there is a tie at the end of voting, a 30-minute break will follow after which another round of voting will take place.
Should there still be a tie, the proceedings will then be adjourned and fresh elections called in 30 days.
