Lequay out race for WICB job

President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), Alloy Lequay, is not interested in contesting the post of West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president.

This was revealed by a source close to the TTCB yesterday. “Alloy is not going up for the elections and as a matter of fact he wishes not to be nominated by the TTCB or anybody else,” the high-placed source indicated. There were calls from prominent citizens for the evergreen Lequay to enter the race in order to provide some much-needed stability at the top level of regional cricket administration. TT team manager Omar Khan as well as the Chief Executive Officer of PowerGen, Garth Chatoor, were among those who made calls for the administrative maestro to enter the fold. But Lequay has come under severe criticisms from certain sections of the media for his board’s stance in not supporting Trinidadian Willie Rodriguez for the post.

The TTCB had decided to support Chetram Singh of Guyana in the aborted elections last weekend in St Lucia. However, Rodriguez pulled out of the race after realising that his nomination, by the Jamaican authorities, and his rejection by the TT Board was causing divisiveness at the regional level. The way was then paved for Singh to be formalised as the president of the WICB. But he withdrew at the last minute after it was reported that the International Cricket Council (ICC) would have debarred him from attending their meetings because of his links to gambling. Singh is the licenced owner of a betting operation in Georgetown. The directors at the WI Board then met and decided that they were going to convene a special meeting soon to pick a replacement of the outgoing Wes Hall.

Nominations have been opened again and it was rumoured that Lequay would be a leading candidate. The veteran, who is highly respected in his country, said on Thursday that he was thinking about the proposition. However, it is now apparent that he will be staying clear of the affairs of the WICB and will be concentrating his energies on the development of his brainchild, the National Cricket Centre (NCC) at Balmain, Couva.