How tall of a task will it be for Ricky Skerritt and his team at Cricket West Indies (CWI) to support Dave Cameron’s ambitions of becoming the next Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC)?
It is an uphill task if you ask me.
Cameron, who has asked CWI to back his nomination, will require the support of two full members of ICC in a bid to win the right to sit in the highest office of international cricket’s highest administration.
But like most political events in the region, the current administration, which replaced Cameron’s in 2019, may not be willing to play ball with Cameron whom they replaced as CWI president at the last elections.
Current vice president Dr Kishore Shallow during an interview with Trinidad and Tobago Guardian argued that he is not inclined to support his Caribbean counterpart.
“When Ricky and I challenged Dave at the last elections (2019) we did so because we thought that he was not doing a sterling job. We were directors and we thought that because of shortcomings we should fight him at the elections and we did so and won,” Dr. Shallow told the Trinidad media entity.”
He added: “… having said that between then and now Dave has done nothing to say he has improved as a leader and this doesn’t merit him being supported.
That is my personal position, I will not support him based on merit and nothing else.”
However, the CWI vice-president admitted that his views were not that of the board’s which will decide on whether they’ll support Cameron’s ambitions today.
The Jamaican has at least one confirmed CWI executive behind him in Conde Riley, the president of Barbados Cricket Association, who according to ESPN, has been lobbying on Cameron’s behalf.
But just how beneficial to West Indies cricket would it be to have Cameron at the helm of ICC?
Cameron is of the view that the financial structure of ICC needs to be revised to create an equal playing field. He is strongly against India, Australia and England hogging the lion’s share of the international cricket economy where not much is handed down to the smaller territories, including the West Indies.
“I believe we need to find a sustainable financial model where teams can earn through merit,” Cameron, who served as CWI president from 2013 to 2019, was quoted as saying by the Jamaica Gleaner.
“The big three India, Australia and England have all the events, the audience and the biggest economy, but the smaller nations have to always be coming back to the ICC for financial support, so what we want to happen is not equal share of revenues, but equitable share.”
Cameron is an experienced campaigner. He served as a regional director between 2002 and 2019. Cameron served as vice-president during Julian Hunte’s tenure as president 2007-2013. In the 2013 election, Cameron had beaten the incumbent Hunte 7-5.
Prior to getting into administration at the board level, he served as the vice president of the St Ann Parish Association and was the team manager and president of the Kensington Cricket Club. He also served as treasurer of the Jamaican Cricket Association and has a first-class honours BSC in Hotel Management from the University of the West Indies.
Cameron was recommended for the ICC chairman post by the United States Cricket Hall of Fame. If he finds favour from CWI, he will go up against former Indian skipper and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Sourav Ganguly, as well as favourite, England and Wales cricket boss, Colin Graves, for the top job in global cricket.
