(CMC) – Antigua’s Minister of Sport, Daryll Matthew, believes the time has come for Cricket West Indies (CWI) to increase the term limit of its president to four years.
Speaking on Thursday during CWI’s quarterly press conference, Matthew said the current two-year term was insufficient for any president to adequately make any major changes during his tenure.
Matthew told CWI president Dr. Kishore Shallow that while he was impressed with what he had been able to achieve since being elected in March 2023, two years were simply not enough time for him to achieve all of his goals.
Additionally, he said a four-year term would bring CWI in line with similar sporting organisations around the world.
“In many modern sports, administrators lead for four-year terms. When you have an organisation that every two years you are in election mode, it really leaves very little room to do much else than campaign,” Matthew explained.
“I think that is doing a disservice to the organisation. I believe that the thrust that you and your team have made over the past few years to improve the overall governance of CWI, I think the time has now come for that final hurdle to be addressed.
“I think it is simply unsustainable for an organisation the magnitude of CWI, an organisation that represents the passion of the people. An organisation that has the resources and, on whose shoulders, tremendous responsibility lies can’t always be in election mode,” he added.
However, Matthew said he understood the challenges Dr. Shallow would face if he sought to increase the term limit while being president.
“I hope that at some point in the very near future it is something that your Board can address to perhaps seek to extend the term to a four-year term like almost every other international sporting organisation around the world.
“And I can understand the discomfort that you may have as the sitting president to be the one addressing it. There may be mischievous persons who would indicate that it is a self-serving move, and I’m not sure how you and your team will address that, but certainly to have a two-year term of office for an organisation like CWI is simply in my personal opinion not practical nor perhaps sensible,” Matthew maintained.
