Chetram Singh withdrew as the sole candidate to become the West Indies Cricket Board's next president as ownership of a gambling business in Guy-ana would have disqualified him from sitting on the Inter-national Cricket Council.

　　The 53-year-old Singh, president of the Guyana Cricket Board, announced his decision on Sunday at the WICB's annual meeting in Roseau, Dominica.

　　"I believe that West Indies cricket needs continued unity at this time and I would not wish to accept the post of president without the support of the board and the cricket-loving people of the Caribbean," he said.

　　The cricket board has opened nominations to its six member boards, including Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago and Windward Islands.

　　The WICB said it would call a special meeting to elect a replacement to the current president Rev Wes Hall, a former test player, selector and team manager, who resigned at the meeting in Dominica.

　　Singh acknowledged that his ownership of a book-making business had caused concern over his ineligibility to represent the WICB at the ICC under its code of ethics.

　　Following the match-fixing scandals of the late 1990s that undermined the game's integrity, the ICC established an anti-corruption unit and inserted into its code of ethics a clause disqualifying anyone "engaged or involved in, directly or indirectly, any conduct analogous to gambling or any other form of financial speculation."