(SportsMax) Chris Dehring, the highly regarded Jamaican sports administrator, who is about to embark on the job as CEO of Cricket West Indies, has been named to join a panel of experts to advise on the future of the sport of cricket around the world.

Dehring was announced on Thursday as the newest member of the World Cricket Connects Advisory Board. This independent group will shape the annual World Cricket Connects agenda, help facilitate the event’s discussions and in turn maximise the opportunity for genuine impact on the health of the game.

The World Cricket Connects will stage a forum, which proved hugely popular in in the past to bring together influential people from across all aspects of cricket in its inaugural year in 2024. This year’s event will be held at Lord’s on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2025, ahead of the ICC World Test Championship Final between South Africa and Australia.

The Connects Board replaces the MCC World Cricket Committee. Many of the areas of the global game which were debated and influenced as part of its remit will now be included and discussed by the Connects Board.

The committee was established in 2006 as an independent body and completed a range of important work across a range of topics in the game, including day/night Test cricket, the World Test Championship, speeding up the pace of play, cricket in multi-format sports events such as the Olympics, and stronger anti-corruption deterrents. The final meeting of the committee meeting took place at Lord’s last summer.

In a communique, the MCC said, the following names have accepted invitations to join the board:

Kumar Sangakkara (Chair – Former Sri Lanka captain and former President of MCC)

Anurag Dahiya (Chief Commercial Officer at ICC)

Chris Dehring (CEO at West Indies Cricket)

Sourav Ganguly (Former India captain and former President of BCCI)

Sanjog Gupta (CEO- Sports, JioStar)

Mel Jones (Former Australia international and current broadcaster)