HAMILTON, Bermuda, (CMC) – Lawyer Ed Bailey has pulled out of this month’s Bermuda Cricket Board’s (BCB) presidential race, the Royal Gazette newspaper said on Saturday. Bailey, a former Board president, has told the BCB and its affiliates and Sports Minister Glenn Blakeney that he no longer intends to run for the top post.
Bailey’s surprise exit leaves three candidates still in the race – BCB first vice-president Allen Richardson, BCB second vice-president Lloyd Fray and former national team captain Clay Smith.
Bailey had been considered among the favourites to succeed outgoing president Reggie Pearman at the BCB’s annual meeting on November 29.
The Gazette said Bailey told BCB secretary Cheryl-Ann Mapp in a letter that he was dismayed the BCB’s AGM was being held before a commission of inquiry into the affairs of cricket – and football – launched recently by Blakeney was completed.
“I write with great concern and dismay that the Bermuda Cricket Board management committee has circulated an official notice for an annual general meeting scheduled for November 29, 2011 despite the Honourable Minister of Sports’ ongoing commission of inquiry into the affairs of the sport of cricket,” Bailey said in the letter.
“As a club representative and a possible presidential candidate to fill the office which is being vacated by the retiring Reginald Pearman, I take the view as a matter of principle it would be prudent and respectful for the annual general meeting to elect a president, treasurer and other officers to be scheduled after the commission’s findings have been reported, circulated and discussed by all cricket affiliates with a view of reaching resolutions for the good of the sport.
“No doubt it would be beneficial and honourable to receive the commission’s findings with an open mind to be a beacon or compass for the way forward for Bermuda cricket. Our sport of cricket is at a very critical stage and it is very important that all areas which have been identified to have weaknesses must be addressed with measured and informed decisions.
“Notwithstanding my wish and hope to make a positive contribution to the improvement of cricket to an acceptable level/standard, I profoundly regret after great consideration I have to withdraw from participating in the election process under these circumstances.”
The incoming president will be expected to chart a new course for Bermuda cricket which has plummeted from its lofty heights in recent years.
Bermuda were good enough to qualify for the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean but a series of wretched performances saw them lose their One-Day International status two years later. Gus Logie, a former West Indies coach, then subsequently opted not to renew his contract with the side.
Bermuda have since been relegated to the World Cricket League Division Three.