CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC):

FORMER GUYANA captain and West Indies offspin bowler Clyde Butts has been promoted to become the new convenor of the West Indies selection panel, the West Indies Cricket Board announced yesterday.

Butts, former Trinidad and Tobago and West Indies spin bowler Raphick Jumadeen, and former Jamaica captain and West Indies off-spin bowler Robert Haynes will compose the new selection panel.

Cricket's regional governing body has also indicated that Sagicor, a major Caribbean financial services provider, has agreed in principle to support the high performance Centre (HPC) of the Academy.

The announcements followed a two-day WICB directors' meeting which ended on Friday in St Lucia.

The WICB agreed to the appoint-ment of a new selection panel, comprising Butts, Jumadeen and Haynes, to replace the panel which was headed by former Barbados captain and West Indies opener Gordon Greenidge.

Alternates

The WICB also disclosed the names of three alternate selectors - former Barbados captain and West Indies wicketkeeper/batsman Courtney Browne, former Jamaica and West Indies offspin bowler Nehemiah Perry and former Leeward Islands captain and West Indies opener Stuart Williams.

All the selectors were to participate in an orientation session in Barbados this weekend, as Butts, Jumadeen and Haynes get set for their first assignment, choosing a 30-member squad for the ICC Champions Trophy to be staged in Pakistan in September.

Butts and company will also have to select a side to take part in a quadrangular Twenty20 series along with hosts Canada, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The WICB revealed that they were one step close to the establish-ment of a Cricket Academy.

The agreement between the WICB and Sagicor is still subject to contract, but the financial services company has committed to providing US$2.5 million between 2008 and 2012 to develop and maintain the HPC which will be located at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados.