The celebutante of fast bowling, Michael Holding has levied severe allegations on Cricket West Indies (CWI) for misusing of half a million US dollars that Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had donated. He has raised serious questions on the financial management of the governing body in the island nations.
While speaking on a YouTube show, Holding showed an audit report of Pannell Kerr Foster (PKF) regarding the cricket governance in the Caribbean and raised some red flags. In the process, the former Jamaican cricketer also brought up the donation CWI received from the Indian cricket board for the benefit of former Caribbean players.
“Way back in 2013-2014, the BCCI donated half a million US dollars specifically to go to past players. I am a past player, not that I want any of it, but I know a lot of past players, I have never heard that not even one cent out of that half a million going to any past player,” claimed Holding.
“I am absolutely sure if they (CWI) had done that, they would have made a big hullabaloo about it. Where is that half a million dollars? I will tell the viewers very soon,” said the 66-year-old.
The Kingston-born asked why the audit report has not gone public. Holding stated that the more he reads the story, the angrier he gets.
“Former President to Prime Ministers (of various islands) have been calling for the forensic report over the governance of cricket in the Caribbean. The current regime did not do a forensic audit, but they did an audit. They had the report in January but never released it. The 60-page report does not look good. It is a damning and harsh report. I want to delve into it,” Holding added.
Holding, who took 249 Test wickets and earned 142 scalps in ODIs, further added that six regional boards govern nations cricketing body and they are not releasing the audit report.
“They can claim confidentiality if they are a private company. You cannot claim to be a private company if you have public share-holders. The share-holders of CWI are six regional boards. They are hiding behind a clause not to release the report,” concluded the ‘Whispering Death’.
