PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies Cricket Board president, Dave Cameron, has renewed his commitment to making the embattled regional body profitable, even as he announced a name-change of the organization to Cricket West Indies.
While no formal announcement of the name-change has been made, Cameron told the Guardian newspaper here that the WICB would now be known as Cricket West Indies and that an entity named Windies had also been created to deal with the commercial aspect of the operation.
The controversial Jamaica administrator, who has come under fire over the last two years for his leadership of the WICB, said rebranding was a necessary move if the institution was to remain commercially viable.
“At this point in time we are no longer called the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) but Cricket West Indies and we have also formed a company to deal with the commercial matters of West Indies cricket and this is called Windies,” Cameron said.
“We continue to explore ways to take West Indies cricket forward and this rebranding is necessary as we move along.”
He continued: “I am a businessman, so I understand what it takes to make it successful. One thing you need to understand is that sport is a business and we at Cricket West Indies is like a government.
“We need to manage the affairs of the sport not only in terms of improving the performances of our various teams, but also the financial aspect in order to gather what we all want, which is success.”
Cameron has faced pressure over the last year to scrap the body known as the WICB and replace it wisth an entity proposed by regional nation grouping, CARICOM.
In a CARICOM-commissioned report which was produced by a panel headed by Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, Professor Eudine Barriteau, the board was blasted as having an “obsolete governance framework” which did not “prioritise accountability and transparency.”
In response, the board criticized the CARICOM report as “limited in scope” and argued it had “triggered findings and recommendations … which are not supported by the facts.”
Cameron, who has remained unmoved in the face of the heavy criticism, said the governing body would continue to make necessary changes to remain relevant.
“We want to do things right and do it in a way that would keep us up to date with the changing face of sport management,” he said.
“Every day the world of sports management and administration is changing and you need to keep up with this or face serious problems. We at the Cricket West Indies is ready for the challenge and we will be successful.”
