Griffith elected new WICB president

ST JOHN’S: Barbadian Teddy Griffith is the new president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) following yesterday’s vote to fill the position left vacant by Wes Hall.

The 67-year-old Griffith, a retired banking and business executive, topped Antiguan Clarvis Joseph by a vote of nine to four in the poll at the WICB’s special general meeting. Joseph was renewing his bid for a top spot in the WICB after resigning two years ago. Griffith succeeds Hall, who decided not to offer himself for re-election because of health reasons. The special poll was organised after Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) president Chetram Singh, the only nominee at the original meeting in Dominica in July, withdrew at the last minute. Singh had been under pressure over of his candidacy because he runs a bookmaking business in Georgetown and his gambling connections would have debarred him from representing the WICB at meetings of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Griffith indicated yesterday after his election that he looked forward to meeting with the WICB’s key stakeholders and would share his vision for West Indies cricket with the West Indies people via the media at the earliest opportunity. Griffith had been a long-serving member of West Indies cricket’s marketing division, and until now had been chairman of the Human Resources, Disciplinary and Marketing committees of the WICB. He also played First Class cricket for Barbados and Jamaica and has a distinguished career in the private sector, having held leadership positions within corporations in his homeland as well as Jamaica where he resided for many years.