BRIDGETOWN - The national cricket associations of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica played a major part in the defeat of cricket legend Clive Lloyd for the post of vice-president of the West Indies Cricket Board's meeting in St Maarten last Sunday.

LLOYD ... his talents and wide experience are needed now more than ever, according to WICB sources

This revelation yesterday emerged from a post-election assessment that also highlighted a prior deal between the cricket associations of Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Islands to ensure the election of former media magnate Ken Gordon as new WICB President.

The quid pro quo arrangement between the associations of Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Islands, the Sporting World was reliably informed, involved support for Gordon as president to replace Barbados' Teddy Griffith, who was not seeking re-election; and in turn guaranteed backing for incumbent vice-president Val Banks, a banker of the Leeward Islands.

With the three voting groups entitled to two votes each, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Leeward Islands cast their ballots for Banks, while Guyana, Barbados and the Windward Islands voted for Lloyd.
Then Banks, the incumbent and two-term vice-president, used his vote for himself, assured also of support from Barbados' then outgoing president Teddy Griffith, resulting in an eight-six defeat for Lloyd.

Given the nature of the quid pro quo arrangement between the representatives of Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Islands, strenuous efforts were made to get backing for Lloyd from Jamaica.

But this proved futile in the face of what representatives of delegations described as surprising "inflexibility" by Jamaica to prevent the greatest captain of West Indies cricket from replacing Banks.

Question for Jamaicans, as raised by some WICB sources, is whether the Jamaica Cricket Association had mandated their representatives for the St Maarten meeting to vote against Lloyd as vice-president, even in the face of the controversies over the secret contract the Board had signed with Digicel, the Irish telecommunications corporation.

Earlier, Lloyd had given firm assurance of his readiness to relocate from England, where he currently resides, to once again live within the Caribbean Community if successful in his bid for either president or vice-president of the WICB.

Yesterday, the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) expressed its "deep disappointment" over Lloyd's failure to win the post of vice-president. It, however, gave the assurance of its "continuing commitment" to the development of West Indies cricket and to "fully collaborate" with new president Ken Gordon and his team.

The GCB said it "hopes that the disappointment and frustration" which Lloyd would feel at this time "will not diminish his interest in the game in the Caribbean and that he would continue to make his considerable talents available to Guyana and the West Indies in the future...."

Guyana had originally nominated Lloyd for the post of president. After Gordon's nomination by Trinidad was seconded by the Leeward Islands, Barbados' candidate and later Jamaica's, pulled out of the contest. This guaranteed Gordon's unopposed election to the presidency.

However, the consistent support of Guyana, Barbados and the Windward Islands for Lloyd as vice-president failed to influence, despite private pleadings, any shift in the voting blocs from Jamaica.

The pity, according to WICB sources, was that the defeat of Lloyd, whose "talents and wide experience are needed now more than ever", should have happened after it had already been agreed in principle, at a previous Board meeting, to change the rules to debar both the president and vice-president from voting at elections.

On Monday the report from the three-member committee chaired by Justice Anthony Lucky on the WICB/Digicel deal, is to be formally presented to the Board's new president in Port-of-Spain.

The West Indies Players Association (WIPA) for one, which has been locked in ongoing disputes with the WICB over players' contracts, favour early publication of at least the main findings and recommendations of the Lucky committee.

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