WICB headquarters set to move next year

The headquarters of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will be relocated by early next year.

This is according to President Dave Cameron, who said plans are in the pipeline to move the St John’s offices to the Stanford Cricket Ground at Coolidge.

The move, he said, will come following the joint acquisition of the Grounds by the WICB and the Antigua & Barbuda government.

The Stanford Cricket Ground is set to house the WICB from early 2017.

Cameron anticipates that by early 2017, the acquisition would have been complete, but hints that work could start at the facility long before then.

“Whether we acquire the stadium, and irrespective of the timeline, we are looking at starting to improve the park so that we can use it next year. It will become the home of West Indies cricket,” he said.

“We will lease the restaurant, because that’s not the business we’re in, and the idea is to create a cricket experience upstairs for tourists and of course, our islanders from Antigua & Barbuda and surrounding islands. The head office will be re-located there and we ideally want to make that our home within Antigua & Barbuda,” he added.

News of the planned acquisition broke in late May when Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced the country’s partnership with the WICB while addressing a gathering celebrating the WICB’s 90th year of recognition by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Antigua.

Browne said they were in negotiation with the Stanford liquidator receiver to acquire the Stanford Cricket Ground, Sticky Wicket and other amenities valued at US$6million. His government, he said, will underwrite up to 50 per cent of that amount.

First Published In The Antigua Observer.