Pres­i­dent of Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) Dave Cameron was a pop­u­lar choice among the can­di­dates in­duct­ed in­to the US Hall of Fame on the week­end in New York, USA.

The Ja­maican was cho­sen by the Hall of Fame pan­el head­ed by Michael Cham­bers and recog­nised for his work in the ad­min­is­tra­tion of West In­dies crick­et. Cham­bers in­tro­duc­ing Cameron said he was a pop­u­lar choice be­cause he has stood firm amidst many de­trac­tors in his ef­forts to lead West In­dies crick­et for­ward. “Dave has had a lot to deal with when it comes to West In­dies crick­et. A lot of peo­ple has had prob­lems with his strong-mind­ed lead­er­ship of crick­et in the West In­dies. We have had Prime Min­is­ters come against him but he has stood tall and stuck to what he be­lieved in and we are see­ing the ben­e­fits he has brought to the board.

West In­dies crick­et is mov­ing for­ward and as with any­thing in life, there will al­ways be times when you had blips in chas­ing suc­cess. Like the Windies team cur­rent Test loss in In­dia but we have to look at the over­all pic­ture.

West In­dies crick­et is now very pro­fes­sion­al. Many young men in the Caribbean can pack their bags and say they are go­ing to the of­fice be­cause Dave has led the way in terms of mak­ing crick­et a mean­ing­ful mon­ey earn­er for the crick­eter.”

Cham­bers who hails from Hart­ford Con­necti­cut added that had Cameron come ear­li­er in­to the po­si­tion, it would have been very easy for him. He said, “Dave comes in­to lead­er­ship when the West In­di­an crick­eter has a choice. Now the crick­eter can tell the board to move aside, as they are gain­ing em­ploy­ment in these T20 league across the globe. The Windies team is nev­er at full strength be­cause play­ers are al­ways spread all over the place play­ing T20 match­es in peo­ple’s do­mes­tic leagues. The pres­i­dent long ago would have got­ten the crick­eter that want­ed to play for the West In­dies, as that was the ul­ti­mate goal. Now you have the crick­eter who is mak­ing a choice as to whether he wants to play for the West In­dies. Dave has to deal with this added an­gle in terms of play­er re­la­tions and it is not easy. He has weath­ered the storm well and in ad­di­tion to this, he has tak­en West In­dies crick­et from in the red to the black, which speaks vol­umes of his prowess as a busi­ness­man.”

Al­so on hand at the event host­ed at the Hilton JFK was Vice-Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies Sir Hillary Beck­les. In his ad­dress, he said that he ex­pect­ed noth­ing less than ex­cel­lence from Cameron. “When we lost the first Test against In­dia, I said to my­self that was prob­a­bly be­cause Ja­son Hold­er, a UWI stu­dent was not at the helm be­cause he was out due to in­jury. Then I re­alised that an­oth­er UWI stu­dent Kraigg Brath­waite was lead­ing the team, so I had to think oth­er­wise. When I look at my good friend Dave Cameron and the way he keeps on win­ning elec­tions at CWI, it un­der­scores the point that he is a First Class Ho­n­ours grad­u­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies. As you Vice Chan­cel­lor Dave I ex­pect­ed noth­ing less.”