WI selectors given two more years

The West Indies Cricket Board has voted to retain their current selection panel for another two years. Clyde Butts, Robert Haynes and Courtney Browne will continue until September 2014.

Butts will continue as chairman of the panel, which has presided over an unstable period in the last two years, with player availability become an increasingly difficult issue. Impasses developed between the board and several players, including Chris Gayle, Jerome Taylor and Ramnaresh Sarwan - the latter two having not returned to the national side.

The selection panel will hope their control of players will be helped by an increase in the number of annual retainer contracts being offered - as also voted for by the board. Twenty contacts will be offered to the men from 2012-13, an increase of five from the previous year.

The list of 20 players to be offered contracts was also voted through and will be announced at a later date, after the players have been advised of their deals.

It was the last board meeting for outgoing chief executive Ernest Hilaire, who is stepping down on September 30 and being replaced by Michael Muirhead, whose appointment was rubberstamped.