WICB to be renamed Cricket West Indies; business affairs to be handled by separate wing

WICB to be renamed Cricket West Indies; business affairs to be handled by separate wing

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will be renamed as Cricket West Indies (CWI), with the board looking to improve its infrastructure and create distinct commercial arm of its own. According to lates reports, the board will be aiming to focus only on governance-related issues, while the commercial wing will be handling the business-related affairs of the organisation. The announcement comes in ahead of the West Indies’ scheduled tour of Australia for a three-Test series in December-January, with the board grappling with several administrative issues at the moment as their cricket team continues to struggle in international cricket, especially during the recent tour of Sri Lanka. READ: West Indies ing streak with 23-run win over Sri Lanka in 2nd T20I

According to jamaicaobserver.com, WICB chief Dave Cameron said at Cayman Cricket’s Annual Awards Dinner, “We have resolved to change the name of the WICB and we will be called Cricket West Indies…And why Cricket West Indies? Simply, because everybody seems to believe that the board of directors – the West Indies Cricket Board – is cricket. Cricket is all of us. It’s in all of our communities — in Jamaica, Barbados and in Cayman Islands and the entire region.”

“We have also created a distinct commercial entity … we will roll that out in the next couple of months as well, and that is to ensure that we have our brand identity and commercial platform, very distinct from our governance platform.

“So the governance will be Cricket West Indies and we will have a commercial platform,” added Cameron.

“We recrafted our strategic plan using what we called the balanced scorecard. Our deficit has been reduced from just under US$4 million to under US$2 million now, and this year – unaudited figures – we had a surplus of just under three-and-a-half million dollars,” the Jamaican pointed out.

“Our new commercial model sees our players getting 25 per cent of the commercial revenues of the WICB. Last year, we paid our players just under 10 million dollars, so we’re by no means a small organisation,” further added Cameron.

Cameron, however, noted that ensuring the success of the regional team was the most important objective, especially given the fact that the team has struggled in the recent past. West Indies just concluded their tour of Sri Lanka, where they were whitewashed 0-2 and 0-3 in the Test and One-Day International (ODI) series, before levelling the Twenty20 International (T20I) series 101 with a 23-run win in the 2nd T20I.

There’s still a lot that has to be done … we’re under no illusions that we are where we need to be, because all the great things I’ve told you now, we’re still ranked number nine in One Day cricket, number eight in Test cricket and number three in T20, so we know we have a lot of work [to be done],” he stressed.

“And until we start winning, we’re not going to go anywhere.”