Fast bowling great Michael Holding has alleged misuse of half a million US dollars that Board of Control for Cricket in India donated to Cricket West Indies besides raising serious questions on the financial management of the game’s governing body in the Caribbean.
On a YouTube show, Holding displayed the audit report of Pannell Kerr Foster (PKF) on cricket governance in the Caribbean and raised several red flags. He also talked about the donation CWI received from BCCI for the benefit of its former players.
“Way back in 2013-’14, the BCCI donated $500,000 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.
“I am absolute sure if they [CWI] had done that, they would have made a big hullabaloo about it. There would have been press conferences where they’d go: ‘look what we are doing to the past players.’ Where is that half a million dollars? I will tell the viewers very soon,” said Holding.
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With the audit report in his hands, the Jamaican questioned why it has not gone public. He said the more he reads the report, the more angry he gets.
“Former President to Prime Ministers [of various islands] have been calling for 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-odd pages of it and the report does not look good. It is a damning and harsh report of West Indies cricket. I want to delve into it,” said Holding.
Holding said CWI should make the audit report public. “They can claim confidentiality if they are a private company. You cannot claim to be a private company if you have public shareholders. The share-holders of CWI are six regional boards. They are hiding behind a clause to not release the report,” he added.
Watch the full video here: