Regional leaders to talk cricket

Caricom Chairman, St Lucia’s Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony on Wednesday announced that a team of regional Heads of Government will meet in Castries with representatives of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) on Friday, November 4.

They will discuss key issues relating to the future of West Indies cricket and the region’s successful hosting of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket World Cup in 2007.

Prime Minister Anthony said that he, along with Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur and Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, will meet with the representatives of the WICB and the WIPA, "to communicate to the Board and the players the recommendations from decisions taken at the last Caricom Heads of Government Summit held here in July."

Dr Anthony said the July summit, held in the northern town of Gros Islet, discussed the crisis — the WICB/WIPA players’ contract conflict — in West Indies cricket and its possible consequences for the region’s hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2007.

The Heads of Government, when they gathered here in July, discussed specific matters relating to the players, the administrators and the game itself.

They also discussed strengthening mechanisms for better governance and communication at all levels, resolution of disputes, as well as deepening the institutional relationships between the Caricom and the main institutions.