Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY THE WEST Indies Cricket Board has a new president, he is Barbadian Teddy Griffith, and good luck to him.
After looking to set to win the vote but by one or two, Griffith romped home an easy winner with nine for and four against, and apart from the satisfaction that such a margin of victory must have given him, it is also good for West Indies cricket.
A man with a deep passion for the game and for West Indies cricket, Griffith took some time before agreeing to contest the position, and that was simply because he believed, and probably still do, that the presidency of the West Indies Board should not have to go to a vote but should be decided by consensus. A victory by one or two votes would certainly not have pleased him, he probably would not have felt comfortable leading with such a slim margin, and that would not have been good for West Indies cricket.
A majority of five out of 13 is a convincing victory, however, and he can go about the business of administering West Indies cricket confident with the knowledge that he was the popular choice.
Is he the right choice? No doubt about it - and for some good reasons.
As the son of Herman Griffith - the great West Indies fast bowler of yesteryear, Teddy Griffith has cricket in his genes; as one who represented Barbados while still in school and then Jamaica after coming here to study at the University of the West Indies (UWI), he has been to the war; and as one who has served West Indies cricket in different capacities for a number of years, he knows about West Indies cricket.
In fact, as one who served on the marketing committee, chaired the marketing committee, headed the strategic planning committee, and as one who represented the Board in many other areas, including dealing with sponsors and players, he knows West Indies inside out.
There is, however, another reason why Griffith, the first graduate of UWI to be president of the Board, is the right choice. He is a man committed to the game, and as members of the Melbourne family will verify, that commitment was certainly demonstrated while living in Jamaica - the home of his wife and the birthplace of his four sons.
But for Griffith, and others like Ivan Heron, Eric Morin and Ralph Holding (now deceased), George Sterling, Ruddy Marzouca and Keith Reese, Melbourne probably would not be around today.
In the early 1960s when Melbourne ran into financial problems, the club was forced to sell the premises at Elletson Road, and while the vast majority of the members were willing to see it die and went to other clubs, Griffith and company stuck with it and kept it going - mostly out of their own pockets, first at Lime Tree Oval, then at Jacisera Park, and finally at the Chinese Athletic Club, which is now Melbourne Oval.
Like so many others who turned their backs on the club, Griffith could have walked away. Instead, he stayed, he led the move to keep the club alive, today Melbourne is 111 years old, and since moving to Derrymore Road, it has produced a number of Jamaica representatives and six West Indies players - including Courtney Walsh, Robert and Marlon Samuels, and Carlton Baugh Jnr who were all born, not a mile away, but next door to the club.
West Indies cricket should be grateful to Melbourne for producing those Test players - including, in Michael Holding, one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game, in Walsh, the most successful bowler of all time, and if it is grateful to Melbourne, it should also be grateful to Griffith and those who saved Melbourne.
Teddy Griffith, who was born in Barbados, who lived most of his life in Jamaica, and who is certainly not insular, has worked tirelessly for cricket, he has contributed at all levels, and if he works as hard and as efficiently as the leader as when he was being led, he will be a successful president.
