BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Joel Garner has disclosed that he turned down the chance to become Vice-President of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on his terms.

Garner is the former Barbados captain and West Indies fast bowler. He is currently the president of the Barbados Cricket Association, and a director of the WICB.

He would have challenged Dave Cameron for the position at last week’s annual general meeting in Antigua, but he decided to step away from the nomination process, and this allowed the Jamaican business executive to return to the position unopposed.

“What happened in the whole scenario is that Deryck Murray called me, and he said, ‘We had to get rid of the people at the top’,” said Garner in a wide-ranging interview on CBC Radio here.

“I told him that I was not in the business of getting rid of people, and I knew that they were weaknesses at the top, but what we had to do was to support the people running our cricket, and try to fill those weak spots.

“I ended the call because I did not want to get into any conversation. I did not want anyone to think I was in collusion and trying to dethrone anybody.”

Garner said the scenario unfolded earlier in the year, and he was in England in June, when the phone calls from other territorial board members started again to woo him into challenging for the position.

“They asked me if I was interested in running for the post of vice-president, and I dismissed it because I did not think about it at the time,” he said.

“Closer to the time of the election, the phone calls started again, and I decided, that if they wanted me to challenge for the position of vice-president, I would do it. At that time, someone from every cricket board called me.”

Garner disclosed that the only condition for accepting the challenge was that he needed approval from the BCA board of management.

“The decision was taken, and I told them that before I could fully commit, I had to meet with the BCA board,” he said.

“They had to know first, and had to agree. If they didn’t agree with it, I was not going to get involved, or do like others before me and take positions without approval from my local board.

“Subsequently, the BCA board did not meet, and I called the others and told them that we had not met, and I could not let them put forward my name without ratification of the BCA Board.”

Garner refused to be drawn into a critique of the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board’s decision to miss the AGM, and felt they would have to live with their decision to withdraw from the meeting.