Bassarath: ICC coming to region speaks to confidence in WICB

President of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) and West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director, Azim Bassarath says that the fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to keep their annual meeting in Barbados, shows that they have confidence in the WICB.

Bassarath said: “This decision to come to the Caribbean for the annual meeting was taken after the issues we had with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It represented to me that the ICC still had faith is us as a major cricketing nation and they wanted to show that by coming here.”

The meeting takes place in Barbados from June 22-26 and will see over 50 delegates from the cricket playing nations around the world, gather in Barbados for the meeting. President of the ICC N Srinivasan said : “We are delighted to be taking the ICC Annual Conference to the West Indies for the first time and I am sure both the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the island of Barbados will prove to be excellent hosts for these important meetings.”

Bassarath said, “These meetings shape the future of the game and we will be having it here for the first time which speaks volumes. Our president Dave Cameron went across to Dubai for the last meeting and was able to make a successful approach to have the meeting here, as well as the Under-19 World Cup which will also come to the Caribbean.”

Bassarath and his board recently supported former Test player Joel Garner for the post of president of the WICB but lost out, when Cameron retained his post for another term, winning the elections 8-4. He has, however, pledged his full support in moving forward. 

“The TTCB made a choice at the last election and it was great to see that we were able to democratically host an election. Everyone is free to support whoever they want but having said that Dave is the president and we are going to give him full support in moving forward.

“He is the man at the helm and we are all there to improve everything about our cricket and he knows that we will support the movement forward. We might not agree on all things but it is great to see that we can put things aside and work for the betterment of cricket in the Caribbean.

“We have some very good talent on the WICB and we are going to do all in our power to get our cricket back up to the standard we would like. We have started with a number of wonderful aspects already in terms of the PCL and the Nagico and we will be looking to make it even bigger and better.

“When the ICC comes to Barbados, they must feel satisfied that their choice was a great one and we at the WICB will be making sure that it is a success.”

The event is being hosted by the WICB in collaboration with Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated (BTMI).