-lauds fight and passion of West Indies team
St John’s, Antigua – The just concluded inaugural Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Ministers of Sport Conference recognized and hailed the contribution that various West Indies Cricket Board development programmes have been making towards the development of cricket in the sub-region.
Chairman of the meeting, Nevisian Junior Minister the Honourable Carlisle Powell said that in addition to the WICB development programmes the meeting was impressed with the development being shown by the West Indies team.
"The meeting is impressed and happy with the WICB programmes for kiddy cricket and grassroots cricket, the Sagicor High Performance Centre programme, the fitness regime and further the meeting is most impressed with the fight and passion which is being displayed by the West Indies team against Australia and the meeting commends the WICB in this regard," Minister Powell told a media conference following the Ministers Conference.
WICB Director and President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association Enoch Lewis also commented at the media conference that the WICB was engaged in a strategic programme to ensure the standardization of training and preparation for players, coaches, umpires and other cricket officials across the region. Lewis noted that this has been to the benefit of cricket throughout the OECS region and the wider Caribbean.
The OECS Sports Ministers Conference was organised collaboratively by the Leeward Islands Cricket Association, the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control and it was hosted by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda at the Royal Antiguan Resort on Sunday April 22 and Monday April 23.
Following the meeting all national cricket associations under LICA and WICBC committed to ensuring that their bodies are duly incorporated as legal entities. This declaration was one of numerous made.
Another critical declaration was that with the support of governments and other key stakeholders, the administrative structures of national and territorial associations be reformed. The reformation process is to include the establishment of secretariats for the two territorial associations and offices, complete with paid personnel and financial support, for the national associations.