Vin­ode Mam­chan

The T&T Crick­et Board will not be nom­i­nat­ing any­one for the post of pres­i­dent of the West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) when the di­rec­tors meet on March 21 to elect a new leader. Pres­i­dent of the T&TCB, Az­im Bas­sarath said yes­ter­day that they are not get­ting in­volved in the pol­i­tics of the elec­tion. In­cum­bent pres­i­dent Dr Julien Hunte is seek­ing an un­prece­dent­ed fourth term at the helm but is re­ceiv­ing a chal­lenge from his vice-pres­i­dent Dave Cameron and for­mer West In­dies cap­tain Clive Lloyd.

T&T's two di­rec­tors on the WICB are Bal­dath Ma­habir and Dr Allen Sam­my, giv­ing T&TBC two votes at the meet­ing­Bas­sarath said yes­ter­day his board will be keep­ing out of the pol­i­tics that is as­so­ci­at­ed with the elec­tions. "We are not tak­ing part in the pol­i­tics of the nom­i­na­tion process. We have tak­en a de­ci­sion at the ex­ec­u­tive lev­el to stay out of the nom­i­na­tion process and we would not even sec­ond any of the can­di­dates."

The dead­line for nom­i­na­tions is Feb­ru­ary 27 and when that is com­plet­ed the TTCB will de­cide who their vote will go to. "When the fi­nal nom­i­na­tions are in, we will con­vene a meet­ing of the ex­ec­u­tive and then de­cide who to sup­port. We are not cam­paign­ing for any­one and we are not show­ing our hand at this time. When we find it is ap­pro­pri­ate we will come for­ward and in­form the pub­lic who we will be sup­port­ing."It is un­der­stood that Hunte is find­ing prob­lems to find some­one to sec­ond his nom­i­na­tion. A source close to the sit­u­a­tion told the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day that the St. Lu­cian has a coun­try to nom­i­nate him, but no one yet to sec­ond his nom­i­na­tion as yet.

It is un­der­stood that Bar­ba­dos has not made up their minds and will al­so be tak­ing a long hard look at the peo­ple go­ing up be­fore mak­ing their choice. A num­ber of for­mer crick­eters have come out open­ly and shown sup­port for Lloyd, who they be­lieve can lead a re­vival in the crick­et.For­mer speed mer­chant Andy Roberts was quot­ed in an ex­clu­sive in­ter­view in yes­ter­day's Guardian as say­ing he wants Hunte to go and thinks Lloyd is the best man for the job at present. Oth­ers have al­so said they want to see the man dubbed 'Su­per­cat' in his play­ing days, get a shot at lead­ing the re­gion­al body.