Teddy Griffith quits in July

Griffith informed the member boards of the WICB, through their respective presidents, that he will be unavailable to accept nomination to a second term as president, if so invited by members, when the term of president comes up for election at the sixth annual general meeting scheduled for July 16.

The SNRC, whose other two members include Avondale Thomas and Gregory Georges, are due to hold its first meeting today in Antigua at which representatives of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) are expected to also attend.

Griffith indicated his decision has been necessitated by personal and family considerations, which will not permit him at age 69, to commit the energy and resources required to fulfil the role through the two-year period to the Cricket World Cup in 2007.

Griffith advised member boards that he had been particularly conscious of the rigorous and demanding schedule that will be required of the president of the West Indies Cricket Board over the next two years in discharging the onerous responsibilities and travel schedule required to fulfil obligations to the WICB, to the ICC where he serves as director representing the West Indies and as a member of the ICC Governance and Audit Committees and to the Board of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 Inc.

Griffith was elected to office in September 2003.

West Indies cricket was thrown into turmoil this year when the WICB chose Irish communications giants Digicel as the new sponsor of the regional cricket team replacing long-standing sponsors Cable & Wireless, who are based in England.

The situation over personal players contracts and endorsements, led to the dropping of several key players including Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and star batsman Brian Lara, who held personal endorsement contracts with Cable & Wireless.

This led to a depleted West Indies side tackling the touring South Africans in the First Digicel Test match at Bourda in Guyana which ended in a draw.

The "rebel" players were later cleared of contract problems and selected for the second Test under new skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the rest of the South Africa series as well as the Pakistan series which followed.

The West Indies lost 2-0 to South Africa and were held 1-1 in the two-Test series against Pakistan after winning the first Test in Barbados.

The SNRC was established and empowered by the WICB to determine whether the WICB and all its organs acted appropriately in the Digicel/Cable & Wireless/ endorsement contracts issue and to determine the validity of a number of allegations made surrounding the controversy.