Antigua demands explanation on Leewards' support for Cameron

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC) — The Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) is complaining that it was left out of a decision taken by the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) to support incumbents Dave Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan for the positions of president and vice-president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

ABCA president Leon Rodney says he only received an email informing him that LICA has taken a decision to support the re-election of Cameron and Nanthan in the March 7 elections.

ABCA is one of eight associations making up LICA and Rodney says the decision by the board to support the two incumbents has not been explained.

"We have never had any communications asking what my association thinks," said Rodney.

"I can tell you that I got an email telling that LICA has made a decision, Nathan as vice-president and Dave as president, and that was about it."

Former West Indies fast bowler Joel Garner is challenging Cameron's presidency -- the only two presidential candidates after nominations closed on Saturday.

Garner, whose running mate is Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) director, Baldath Mahabir, is being supported by Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

Cameron's re-election bid is also attracting the support of Guyana and the Windward Islands.

The ABCA president says his request for LICA to justify their decision to support Cameron has been ignored.

"I went back to them and said as a new or returning executive to LICA, I would prefer if you had said to me why you are supporting these incumbents."

The WICB elections, a high point of its annual general meeting, have become an issue of major contention in the wake of the West Indies-aborted tour of India last October.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves and former West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts have blamed Cameron for the cancelled tour, which has left the WICB with a US$41-million lawsuit, and are among those opposing his re-election.