Barbados give support to Singh

GEORGETOWN: The Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) will throw its support behind the slate of Chetram Singh and Val Banks at next month’s WICB elections, a move that effectively hands victory to the horse racing bookie from Guyana. Publicly, BCA boss Stephen Alleyne won’t admit that the Singh/Banks duo will get the BCA’s two votes but, according to insiders, the power brokers within the WICB’s executive committee hatched a plan back in March this year to make Chetram Singh its preferred candidate. The ‘Gang of Five’ in the all-powerful executive committee — Rev Wes Hall, Stephen Alleyne, Richard DeSouza, Banks and Singh — was briefed on Hall’s plans to step aside when the full board met in Barbados on March 30 and a decision was taken to ensure the Singh/Banks slate received the eight votes required for victory. As previously reported, the Singh/Banks tandem was nominated by the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) and seconded by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control (TTCBC). Now, with the BCA’s backing, Singh is already assured of nine votes (two from Guyana and one from Banks, who owns a vote as the incumbent vice-president).

Sources say Hall is also expected to vote for Singh, meaning the Guyanese businessman will win the elections by a landslide. When the elections are held during the AGM on July 13 in Dominica, Singh and Banks will be pitted against Trinidadian Willie Rodriguez and Lennox John (Windwards). The Rodriguez/John slate was nominated by the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) and seconded by the Windwards board. TTCBC chief Alloy Lequay let the cat out of the bag in a press statement this week, when he admitted the executive committee picked its preferred candidates and mandated that the regional board representatives vote accordingly. Lequay was under pressure at home to explain why his board would support Singh and Banks against countryman Rodriguez, the 59-year old former all-rounder who now heads the Queen’s Park Cricket Club (QPCC). Lequay explained that his board had a “moral commitment” to honour the Executive Committee pact. The executive committee (which insiders refer to as the “EC”) is chaired by Hall and meets once a month by conference call. No minutes are kept and its deliberations are usually top-secret. While CEO Roger Brathwaite and CFO Barry Thomas usually listen in, chief operations officer Michael Hall is no longer invited because he is considered untrustworthy.