CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC):

Newly appointed West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) chief executive Ernest Hilaire is anxious to tackle grave problems plaguing the sport in the Caribbean including the current contractual crisis.

West Indies cricket, already struggling over the past decade with declining standards and moderate international results, has been crippled in recent months by the contractual dispute between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) and Hilaire expects arbitration to settle the issues.

"Let the arbitrator or arbitrators decide once and for all what the positions are and each party agrees to abide by that and let's move forward," he said this week in an HTS Television report.

Top-flight players

The bitter dispute has decimated the regional team, leading to second-string squads being picked for the home series against Bangladesh in July and the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa starting later this month after the region's top-flight players made themselves unavailable because of contract issues.

CARICOM Chairman Bharrat Jagdeo had brokered a deal in July to bring both parties to the bargaining table but the subsequent talks chaired by former Commonwealth Secretary General Sir Shridath Ramphal broke down at the end of August.

The crisis worsened in early September when the WICB declared it would pursue disciplinary action against the defiant players and WIPA advised these players to seek legal action.

St Lucian Hilaire, who takes office on October 1, declared that he wants to employ an approach of communication with WIPA.

"You cannot move forward if you don't speak to your partners involved and I think we have to find a way to do so," he said.

Hilaire has had a very close relationship with West Indies cricket, particularly in the last few years, when he served as CEO for the Cricket World Cup (CWC) in St Lucia.

He had played an important role in the development and presentation of St Lucia's bid to host matches in the 2007 ICC CWC and was previously appointed tournament director of next year's Twenty20 World Cup to be staged in the Caribbean.

In announcing Hilaire's appointment in a press release on Sunday, the WICB president Julian Hunte described the WICB's CEO function at this time as "an extremely difficult challenge" as the board seeks to "establish a new framework for the development of cricket in the region".

But Hilaire is not deterred by the documented tribulation the job brings and he is approaching the appointment with gusto.

High hopes

"It is an ideal opportunity to go in there and to assist in the re-organisation and the development of West Indies cricket and it is something which I actually look forward to," Hilaire said.

Hilaire replaces Donald Peters, who departed the post in July and he will become the fifth CEO of the regional cricket board in the last nine years after Gregory Shillingford, Roger Brathwaite, Bruce Aanensen, and Peters.

"I am excited by the challenge of going in there at this time to do what I can to ensure that West Indies cricket grows and the state of West Indies cricket improves dramatically," he said.

Hilaire was also a former permanent secretary of Youth and Sports in St Lucia, under the Kenny Anthony administration, during whose tenure the Beausejour Cricket Ground in Gros-Islet and the George Odlum Stadium in Vieux Fort were constructed.

He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and possesses a Master of Philosophy in international relations from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from the London School of Economics.