Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) President Azim Bassarath will be officially appointed as the West Indies Cricket Vice President at the fraternity’s Annual General Meeting on March 25.
Accordingly, the TTCB chairman’s promotion from CWI director to vice-chairman went uncontested at the National Cricket Center in Balmain, Couva on Monday. Also, he is the first TT cricket administrator to serve in that capacity. He is currently the CWI Vice President pending his official announcement at the AGM.
Bassarath said Tobago Cricket Association president Curwin John would replace him as a CWI director. This was decided after an executive meeting held on Saturday.
Dr. Kishore Shallow is the outgoing CWI Vice President but a strong contender in the presidential race. His challenger for the top job is Wilford “Billy” Haven, president of the Jamaica Cricket Association.
In his first three months as CWI vice-president, Bassarath looked to decide the way forward in all forms of regional cricket.
The suggestion, made by him last year, gained traction when it was included in the post-T20 World Cup report presented in January by West Indies legend Brian Lara, Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Justice Patrick Thomson Jr, and South African coach Mickey Arthur.
He believes that this meeting of the players and board members is key for both parties to have a clear understanding of what is required, especially long-term commitment, for the overall development of West Indies cricket.
“That (dialogue) is something I feel we should address within the first three months of coming into office. We must meet with the players, have a man-to-man discussion, and find out where they want to go.”
“I want to say we must get players who want to represent West Indies and not to use West Indies as a stepping stone for their own benefit.”
“We want the best players to represent the West Indies and let us hope that, from now on, we get the best players to represent us in all formats of the game.”
This discussion will be a very important one as now the top West Indies players have left the regional team and opted for franchises for more lucrative contracts.
In addition, the Vice President is determined to push for increased youth development throughout the Caribbean.
“I will be focusing more on the cricket aspect of it. I think far too long cricket has been neglected to a certain level and I think that I will try to push as much as possible for some development across the Caribbean.”
“I think the U23s is an important age group that we should focus on throughout the Caribbean and I will do whatever I could to get all the territories having an U23 tournament within their tournament.”
“We were playing cricket but you were not seeing any sort of plans in respect to development, I’m not saying it’s not being done, but we have to be focused more on development, U23s, and so on, across the Caribbean.”
Bassarath, who is looking forward to his new role at the regional institute
“I don’t want to see any fraction or disunity among the presidents and the directors. I am hoping that good sense will prevail in the end and we are going to respect each other when the final vote is counted. I know it will be keenly contested and wish both of them all the best.”
On being elected unopposed, he said, “Maybe the other presidents across the Caribbean would have noticed what we are doing in TT and hence the reason why they would have supported me for the position of vice-president.”
“I would have spoken to all of them prior to the nomination being submitted, and everyone indicated they would support me for the position. That’s maybe the reason why no other nomination came in.”