By NAN Sports Editor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. April 8, 2016: The sheer bliss of a West Indies cricket triple win – double this past weekend and the win of the youth team one week before – has been ruined somewhat by the back and forth of constructive criticism of the players and the poor response of the West Indies Cricket Board – including its President Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron. Cameron, in a Donald Trump moment, choose Twitter as a PR response tool. The result – a global avalanche of articles not focused on the winning teams but on the discord between the board and the players. So who exactly is Dave Cameron? Here are ten facts you may not know about the man called “unprofessional” by Windies player Dwayne Bravo.
1: Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron became President of the West Indies Cricket Board Inc. (WICB) on March 27, 2013, with a 7-5 during the board’s annual general meeting in Barbados.
2: He secured the post by lobbying extensively and aggressively for votes across the region as a vice-president of the Board at the time in order to win over then President, Dr. Julian Hunte.
3: At the time of his election, he had pledged to united the region through the game of cricket. “We must find creative ways of dealing with the challenges that will confront us from time to time,” he said immediately after his election.
4: Cameron is 42; was born in Jamaica and was nominated for the post of President by the Jamaica Cricket Association and seconded by the Windward Cricket Board.
5: He has served as a WICB director since 2002 and was vice-president during Julian Hunte’s tenure as president, which began in 2007.
6: Cameron was re-elected to the post of Board President again in March of 2015 despite the fact that during his tenure, the players abandoned the Indian Tour and saddled the broke and dysfunctional WICB with a claim from the Board of Cricket in India (BCCI) of US$42 million.
7: During Cameron’s tenure there was essentially a Mexican stand-off between him and the Caricom Cricket Committee’s chairman, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell after a report from the Committee essentially labeled the current Board antiquated and obsolete; noted that it had failed to evolve and did not prioritize accountability and transparency. The response of the WICB to a request from Mitchell for an urgent meeting to discuss the report was predictable with Dr. Mitchell all but accusing Cameron of avoiding the meeting. Cameron maintained that the WICB’s schedule was too crowded to accommodate such a meeting.
8: Cameron is the owner of Infiniti Capital Jamaica.
9: He previously worked at Sterling Asset Management & Services Ltd.
10: Cameron graduated from the University of the West Indies Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management.
