'Politics might rule out a team director for West Indies'

Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, believes politics could rule out the possibility of having a managing director for the West Indies team.

"Politics-wise, that might be a little difficult," Lloyd told Stabroek News when asked whether West Indies might follow England's lead of appointing Hugh Morris as the managing director.

However, he did not completely rule out that possibility. "Probably they [West Indies board] might come to that if they could find somebody that could carry those duties," Lloyd said.

Lloyd believed the route to Test success lies in developing a better domestic cricket structure. "If our inter-island cricket is strong, our Test cricket will be strong. We have the academies coming on stream, we have the colleges fielding a team to play in our domestic cricket and the Under-19s are now playing in the one-day competition.

"At the moment we have a very vibrant cricket committee, there are Deryck Murray, Andy Roberts, Ian Bishop, Courtney Walsh, Desmond Haynes. They are very experienced individuals of high repute. We are doing our best to do the right thing. It is important getting the players to understand their purpose," he said pointing out that the committee can only make recommendations to the Board as the Board has the final say."

Lloyd also supported the presence of the non-cricketers in the board of directors that currently comprises 18 administrators. "I would not say they [administrators] don't have any interest in the game. It can't be all cricketers; business people have a place on the board as well to play. What we need to do is get the right blend and I think at the moment we have the right blend. The common goal is to bring West Indies further up the ladder."

Speaking about his decision to quit the Standford Legends board, which organised the successful Standford Twenty20 competition last year, he said it was done to avoid any possible conflict of interest with his position as a WICB board member.

"I am quite happy with what I am trying to do and the most important thing is to get West Indies cricket back on track. I will do that as long as I have breath in my body."