Rodriguez to head WICB

WILLIE RODRIGUEZ, current president of the Queen’s Park Cricket Club, has been nominated for the vacant post as president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

According to Ryan Naraine, editor of the Caribbean Cricket.com website, Rodriguez will have as his running mate (vice-president) Lennox John from St Vincent. The move was made by the Jamaica Cricket Association and was seconded by the Windward Islands. Incumbent president Reverend Wes Hall confirmed on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election at the Board’s annual general meeting in Dominica on July 13 because of failing health. The 65-year-old Hall is bowing out of the WICB to deal with “a pre-existing medical condition which is exacerbated by stressful situations and constant travel.”

Hall, who ran unopposed in 2001 after the dramatic resignation of Pat Rousseau created the vacancy, assumed the post as a player-friendly administrator but, in the end, he will forever be remembered for presiding over some of the most infamous mis-steps in the history of West Indies cricket. From the bungled negotiations that led to the first players’ strike in the history of West Indies cricket to the micro-managing of the team’s operations from afar and the handpicking of a below-average CEO, Hall was seen as an administrator who tried to please everyone but ended up making groups of enemies everywhere. Other contenders for the job are Guyana Cricket Board president Chetram Singh, as well as Barbadian duo, retired banking executive and ex-Barbados Cricket Association president Tony Marshall (who has publicly stated his desire for the job) and Stephen Alleyne.