ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies’ (CWI) Full Mem­ber Share­hold­ers on Sun­day ap­proved a his­toric set of gov­er­nance re­forms, in­clud­ing the in­tro­duc­tion of a term lim­it of a max­i­mum of three terms of three years each for the po­si­tions of pres­i­dent and vice-pres­i­dent.

The changes in the term lim­it will take ef­fect from the next pres­i­den­tial and vice-pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, which is due in March 2025.

All of the Full Mem­ber share­hold­ers; the Bar­ba­dos Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion (BCA), Guyana Crick­et Board (GCB), Ja­maica Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion (JCA), Lee­ward Is­lands Crick­et Board (LICB), Trinidad and To­ba­go Crick­et Board (TTCB), and Wind­ward Is­lands Crick­et Board (WICB) at­tend­ed the meet­ing at CWI’s head­quar­ters in An­tigua.

“To­day marks a defin­ing mo­ment for Crick­et West In­dies.

“With the im­ple­men­ta­tion of long-over­due term lim­its and crit­i­cal gov­er­nance re­forms, we are tak­ing a bold and un­com­pro­mis­ing step to­ward stronger, more trans­par­ent, and ac­count­able lead­er­ship,” Dr Shal­low said.

“For years, gov­er­nance has been at the heart of re­gion­al de­bate, with stake­hold­ers de­mand­ing change.

“This is not just re­form; it is a nec­es­sary trans­for­ma­tion that will en­sure Crick­et West In­dies is led with in­tegri­ty, vi­sion, and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

“These changes lay the foun­da­tion for a more dy­nam­ic and for­ward-think­ing in­sti­tu­tion, one that tru­ly serves the best in­ter­ests of West In­dies crick­et,” he added.

Dr Shal­low was es­pe­cial­ly pleased with the vote in con­fi­dence to ex­tend the term lim­its of CWI’s pres­i­dent and vice pres­i­dent.

“For decades, I have cham­pi­oned term lim­its in lead­er­ship, en­sur­ing fresh ideas and new en­er­gy at the helm. I fought for this prin­ci­ple as pres­i­dent of St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines and the Wind­ward Is­lands Crick­et Board, and I stand by it to­day.

“While the de­ci­sion was not unan­i­mous, there is no di­vi­sion in Crick­et West In­dies. Every ter­ri­to­r­i­al board stands unit­ed in one com­mon pur­pose—to strength­en our or­ga­ni­za­tion, up­hold trans­paren­cy, and se­cure a brighter fu­ture for West In­dies crick­et,” the pres­i­dent main­tained.

“We move for­ward to­geth­er, com­mit­ted to the growth and suc­cess of the game we all love.”

The in­tro­duc­tion of term lim­its and the term ex­ten­sions, adds to a list of oth­er sweep­ing gov­er­nance re­forms de­signed to strength­en CWI’s op­er­a­tional struc­ture and ac­count­abil­i­ty. Over the years, CWI has im­ple­ment­ed sev­er­al gov­er­nance changes aimed at im­prov­ing its struc­ture and ef­fi­cien­cy. These in­clude:

<Board and Lead­er­ship Struc­ture>

In­tro­duc­tion of more fe­male in­de­pen­dent di­rec­tors to the Board to en­hance gen­der rep­re­sen­ta­tion in de­ci­sion-mak­ing, en­sur­ing a broad­er range of ex­per­tise and per­spec­tives.

Im­ple­men­ta­tion of a Strate­gic Gov­er­nance Com­mit­tee.

Re­duc­tion in the num­ber and size of com­mit­tees.

In­creased in­volve­ment of in­de­pen­dent com­mit­tee mem­bers.

Im­ple­men­ta­tion of more ro­bust re­cruit­ment and se­lec­tion process­es to en­sure the most qual­i­fied can­di­dates fill key po­si­tions with­in the or­ga­ni­za­tion.

<Eth­i­cal and Com­pli­ance Mea­sures>

Cen­tral­ized the ethics and dis­ci­pli­nary func­tions to one in­de­pen­dent­ly chaired In­tegri­ty & Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tions Com­mit­tee.

Strength­ened fi­nan­cial re­port­ing and dis­clo­sure re­quire­ments for greater ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Pub­lic re­lease of an an­nu­al re­port con­sis­tent­ly for the past four years, en­sur­ing trans­paren­cy and ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of key or­ga­ni­za­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties and strate­gic pri­or­i­ties.

Pub­lic re­lease of an­nu­al au­dit­ed fi­nan­cial state­ments, re­in­forc­ing fi­nan­cial ac­count­abil­i­ty, demon­strat­ing fis­cal re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and build­ing trust among stake­hold­ers.

<Fi­nan­cial Over­sight and Risk Man­age­ment>

Es­tab­lish­ment of an Au­dit, Risk and Com­pli­ance Com­mit­tee to en­hance fi­nan­cial over­sight and trans­paren­cy.

Em­ploy­ment of an Au­dit, Risk & Com­pli­ance Man­ag­er/Chief Au­dit Ex­ec­u­tive.

Re­struc­tur­ing of the CWI Fi­nance De­part­ment.

Im­ple­men­ta­tion of rec­om­men­da­tion of a Busi­ness Sit­u­a­tion As­sess­ment & Fi­nan­cial Re­view

<Gen­der Equal­i­ty and Women’s Crick­et De­vel­op­ment>

In­tro­duc­tion of busi­ness-class trav­el for the West In­dies Se­nior Women’s team for all long-haul in­ter­na­tion­al flights.

Sin­gle-room ac­com­mo­da­tions for the West In­dies Se­nior Women’s team on all in­ter­na­tion­al as­sign­ments, align­ing with the men’s pol­i­cy.

Es­tab­lish­ment of the Women’s Crick­et Trans­for­ma­tion Com­mit­tee to de­vel­op strate­gies for in­creas­ing fe­male par­tic­i­pa­tion and strength­en­ing the women’s game.

Greater in­vest­ment in the High-Per­for­mance path­way for women’s crick­et, in­clud­ing the launch of a West In­dies Women’s Acad­e­my pro­gramme

Dr Shal­low used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank the share­hold­ers for their sup­port in the process.

“I ex­tend my sin­cere grat­i­tude to our Full Mem­ber share­hold­ers for their lead­er­ship and com­mit­ment to the en­tire process.

“Their sup­port has been in­stru­men­tal in dri­ving this ini­tia­tive for­ward, reaf­firm­ing our col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to safe­guard and strength­en West In­dies crick­et,” Dr Shal­low said.

(CMC)