CHAIRMAN of the Government-installed Interim Management Committee (IMC) and former Guyana and West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd yesterday said he is still Chairman of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket Committee, despite his resignation as a Director from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). With regard to an article which was published in another section of the media, which also said the 67-year-old Lloyd was pushed into resigning by the WICB, the man who was known as the ‘Super Cat’ in his playing days, denied same.
“After long and careful consideration, I tendered my resignation from the WICB. Obviously, I was quiet happy to stay on and serve West Indies cricket, but as I told the president in my resignation letter, Guyana needs me urgently and my resignation was voluntarily, no one forced me to do that.”
The man who replaced former Indian batting maestro Sunil Gavaskar as head of the ICC Cricket Committee in July 2008 said Guyana’s cricket is in serious crisis and against this backdrop he answered the call of the “Government of Guyana to come home and head up an Interim Management Committee on Cricket”.
He added, “I found myself caught between loyalty to my country and loyalty to the WICB and noted that it was with a sad heart that I resigned from the WICB and I hope that my resignation would act as a catalyst for the members of the WICB to ask soul-searching questions and take a hard look at what could be done differently to get our cricket back to the glory days.”
He said he spoke with the ICC before making his decision to resign from the WICB and at no time did he receive any threats with regard to his position with either the ICC or his proposed resignation from the WICB, adding that he will be attending the ICC meeting later this month.
According to Lloyd his duties as Chairman of the IMC, which has been tasked to execute a number of things when it comes to the remedial work that needs to be done with the Guyana Cricket Board, in a six-month period are now a priority for him.
“The Government of Guyana has given us a chance to get our cricket back on track, and once our cricket is fixed we are helping West Indies cricket too, because if you examined over the years we always had a great number of representatives on the West Indies cricket team, so we want to bring that back.”
During this period the measure of work includes: (i) the drafting of a new constitution, which will be presented to all county boards and other stakeholders for their deliberations, while they will also look to bring together the two factions of the Demerara Cricket Board and make it one, amongst others.
Upon completion of its work the IMC is expected to report on its major findings, make recommendations for the way forward and invite an authority with competence in electoral matters to hold elections for office-bearers at both the Regional and National levels.
At present, the IMC is conducting a series of cricket public consultations with local cricket stakeholders and according to Lloyd, “the feedback by the general public was excellent”.
To date, public consultations have been held in Georgetown, East and West Bank of Demerara, Essequibo and the East Coast of Demerara, with the IMC set to journey to Berbice on Sunday, where they will meet with that County’s stakeholders as well.