It was not until 1926 that the Imperial Cricket Conference (consisting of England, Australia and South Africa) invited delegates from India, New Zealand and the West Indies to attend its annual meeting as full members. The three countries had been advised to organise themselves into cricket boards which would be empowered to select representative teams to take part in Test matches. The West Indies Cricket Board of Control (the "of Control" part of the name has been dropped since 1996) was formed in 1927 after a key meeting at Bridgetown on 22 January 1927 under the chairmanship of L T Yearwood. The Board had ten members: two each from Barbados, British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad, and one each from the Windward and Leeward Islands. H B G Austin was the first President and H A Cuke was the first Secretary Following the success of the 1923 West Indian cricket team in England, West Indies was the first of the three new Test-playing nations to be invited to tour England and made its inaugural Test-playing tour in 1928. |