ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt has lauded the contribution of the late Sir Alister McIntyre to the development of the game in the region, especially in the area of governance reform.

Sir Alister, a leading regional academic and a former Caricom secretary general, died last weekend in Jamaica at age 87.

“Sir Alister was one of three leading Caribbean personalities that formed the committee, set up 12 years ago by the West Indies Cricket Board, now CWI, to review the governance of West Indies cricket,” Skerritt said in a statement.

“The committee was chaired by former Jamaica Prime Minister P J Patterson and also included Guyanese business executive and author Ian McDonald. They presented a seminal work which still reverberates to this day and has helped to shape some of the governance and operational policies of the organisation.

“Only last week, we announced that Jamaica Senator Don Wehby will lead a task force to continue that work of reviewing the corporate governance of CWI, and will use the report produced by that committee as the basis to understand how far the organisation has progressed and how much further it needs to go.”

Skerritt, a former St Kitts and Nevis cabinet minister, also hailed Sir Alister’s “sharp mind” along with his dignity and character.

“Sir Alister matched his extraordinary record of accomplishment in the fields of academia and economics with grace and honour off it,” he said.

“The Caribbean has truly lost one of its leading academics and statesmen, whose sharp mind and deep analysis of the challenges facing the region will be truly missed.”

Sir Alister was also vice-chancellor emeritus of The University of West Indies.