Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) president Conde Riley was re-elected unopposed and will serve a third consecutive term while former Barbados chairman of selectors, Henderson Wallace, is the new face added to the board after elections took place last night virtually.
While Riley and BCA secretary Gregory Nicholls returned unopposed, there has been a change to the directors as Timothy Boyce who served in that capacity for 14 consecutive years lost his seat on the BCA board of directors having been edged out by Wallace, 23-18. Veteran board member Winston Stafford tallied 27 and Roland Butcher 24 received the most votes for the available three positions.
During an interview with Barbados Today on his re-election as president, Riley said, “I was unopposed so that in itself was confidence that we were going in the right direction. We have a lot of work coming up in 2022 with the five ODIs (One Day International), the three regional games and then the Test match and the possibility of an international team touring later in the year.”
The meeting went smoothly based on all accounts and after the results were shared president Riley thanked Boyce for his years of service to the BCA board. He thanked him for his sterling efforts in leading the BCA membership committee and the members themselves expressed their gratitude for his service to the BCA from 2007 until now.
The president also congratulated Wallace on his election and welcomed him to the board of directors. Wallace has a wealth of knowledge having served as the chairman of selectors of Barbados cricket for a while. He is expected to bring some level of expertise to the BCA.
Despite having a packed cricket schedule for 2022, Riley stated, “They (CWI) has asked us to host a couple warn up games for the Under-19 World Cup between Ireland, Zimbabwe and those teams that are playing. But our focus is more on the English tour which would bring more benefit to the country in terms of the arrivals.”
Given the global pandemic with which we are now faced with Riley give all assurances that the BCA is in constant talks with all stakeholders including the officials from the Ministry of Health and COVID-19 Monitoring Unit.
“We have a local organising committee consisting of myself, BCA chief executive officer Roland Toppin as the chairman, a number of cricket officials in Barbados and Cricket West Indies as well as the COVID-19 Monitoring Union and people from the Ministry of Health.
We meet every Tuesday via Zoom to make sure that our check list is running smoothly and it is affiliated with where we should be in preparation for the English arrival in January,” Riley explained.
The BCA leader also touched on the Barbados Olympic Association Board of Directors mandate which stated that given the recent restrictions and challenges faced in attending regional and international competitions, BOA has decided to implement a mandatory Covid-19 vaccine policy as a condition of participation in Games for all accredited persons.
In response Riley noted that the BCA, one of the most recent associations to sign on to be part of the Olympic movement does not have to worry because most of their contracted players are vaccinated.
As president, Riley has a few New Year’s resolutions when it comes to cricket in Barbados and those would be to retain the Regional Four Day championship but most importantly he hopes that the players and all involved in the operations of Barbados cricket can stay COVID free.
Next year the positions of vice-president and treasurer will be up for grabs.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
