Julian Hunte to take over from Gordon by end of month

The not so merry-go-round of West Indies cricket continues later this month when the leadership of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) changes yet again at the annual general meeting. The president, Ken Gordon, resigns after two years of "moderate success and devastating failure", to exactly quote the words seven years ago of another leader of West Indies cricket, if in a slightly different context.

Val Banks, the Anguillan banker who has been a virtually anonymous vice-president for the past decade, is also stepping down.

Gordon, the 77-year-old Trinidadian media executive and one-time cabinet minister, was a complete outsider with no previous experience in cricket administration when he replaced Teddy Griffith in 2005. He followed others who did have the seeming benefit of such a background-Pat Rousseau, Wes Hall, Griffith - but who were all overwhelmed by the peculiar problems of the most prominent position in the small cricket-playing territories of the Caribbean.

As the only nomination, his successor as the fifth president in ten years will be Julian Hunte whose vice-president will be Wycliffe "Dave" Cameron, also the only candidate.

Given that the interim report from the committee, created by Gordon and headed by retired Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson to recommend structural changes to the WICB, is to be presented this weekend, the new president and his deputy are likely to head a very different organisation to the one to which they are accustomed. Yet the essentials will remain the same.

Hunte and Cameron are from different backgrounds, different generations. Hunte, 67, brings with him a long and impressive c.v as head of his own company, politician, trade unionist and diplomat in his native St Lucia. Cameron, a Jamaican several years his junior, is a self-made businessman.

Both have served as executives on the WICB. Hunte was a fixture for more than a quarter-century, rising to vice-president and representative at the International Cricket Council (ICC) before he left in 1998 to take up a post as St Lucia's representative at the United Nations where he had a term as president of the General Assembly.

As one of Jamaica's two directors, Cameron is head of the marketing committee. Since Hunte has been out of the loop for the past decade, his return is very much a case of back to the future, especially at a time when the talk is of a "new beginning" for the board. Yet, on the back of his varied career, he brings a reputation as a pragmatist and a problem-solver, significant qualifications in two of the most pressing issues, straightening out the WICB's relations with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and those with the Stanford organisation.

Hunte is astute enough to know from Gordon's tenure that he needs to leave cricketing decisions to the eminent cricketers who are placed on the cricket committee and the selection panel for just such a purpose.

Gordon's most positive legacy was his immediate curb on the spending spree within the organisation that bumped up the WICB's already sizeable debt. Under his guidance, the board's finances are in far better shape than they were.

But he ran himself into trouble when he delved into cricket matters, specifically over the appointment of Brian Lara for his third stint as captain and the initial rejection of the selectors' choice of Chris Gayle as limited-overs skipper that was followed by the embarrassment of having to reinstate him.

One of Hunte's immediate tasks, and that of the new chief executive Bruce Aanensen, is to sort out the mess that, based on reports from those in the know, the secretariat in St John's has become. There has been such a turnover of staff in all departments that some key files and documents cannot be located and proper procedures do not appear to have been followed. It is no wonder even basic tasks end up as blunders.

The public attitude towards the WICB has hardened with every gaffe, every intervention into issues of cricket by one of its unqualified operatives and, ultimately, every defeat. It has been correctly captured in the advice in Dave Martin's new calypso for it to "take a rest".

Hunte and, to a lesser extent, Cameron will be carefully watched and harshly judged. Cameron is less well known in cricket circles than Hunte and he does carry some unwelcome baggage. The Lucky Report into the contentious switch of sponsorship from Cable & Wireless to Digicel, commissioned by the WICB two years ago, found that the Kensington Club, of which Cameron was president, had benefited from Digicel's financial help in renovations to its facilities.

Cameron explained that he had approached both Cable & Wireless and Digicel for sponsorship and only the latter agreed. Such action appeared to compromise his position on the marketing committee and the Lucky Report concluded that there were "legitimate concerns which required examination".

It is not known whether the required examination took place but Cameron remained head of the marketing committee. As such, he secured a significant contract just over a year ago with the Centrex Group, based in Scotland, to form a joint venture company with the WICB to develop its licensing, merchandise and memorabilia ranges.

A media release from Centrex at the time stated that the initial phase of the project would see "branding and development of three different merchandise collections". It revealed that these would be the main WICB range, a Windies sports and leisure range, and a Select Legends range that would include a Sir Garfield Sobers series of merchandise.

None of the specified merchandise ranges are yet evident in circulation and it is impossible to know how the untimely death in a car crash last month of Centrex's head, 40-year-old Jim Whannel, while on a business trip to Manchester, will impact on the agreement. The issue is likely to occupy some time at the meeting but the Patterson report, even if only partially complete, will be one of the main items.

After all, it deals with the composition and structure of the WICB and makes recommendations to "improve its overall operations, governance effectiveness, team performance and strengthen its credibility and public support".