On Sunday diehard West Indian cricket fans were left with a bittersweet taste in their mouths following their team’s useless total of 71 in 13 overs in the final T20 match as England completed a 3 – 0 sweep of the shortest format of the game. The casual fans had abandoned the bandwagon since Friday, following the team’s abysmal score of 45, in reply to England’s total of 182 for 6 in the second match, as the West Indies conceded the series.
The comprehensive defeat in the T20 format serves as a sharp reminder that there is still a long way to go if the West Indies are to ascend to the top of the ladder of the ICC standings. It comes after the successful recapture of the Wisden Trophy in the Test series and the comeback in the final One Day International to tie that series 2 – 2, events which had served notice to fans in the region that the team appeared to have turned the corner. As we endure the growing pains of developing a top tier professional side we must remember that one has to creep before one can walk, much less run, with the higher ranked teams.
As West Indian fans anxiously await the announcement of the team for the World Cup, their attention will be focused on Sunday, March 24th, the election date for Cricket West Indies (CWI) officeholders. The elections will be held in Jamaica, home territory of the incumbent president, Dave Cameron who will be seeking a third term.
Cameron’s time in office has been marked by controversy after controversy. There have been conflicts with players and coaches with accusations flying in all directions. The glaring highlight has been the outright stubborn refusal to adopt the Barriteau Report which was commissioned by the Caricom Prime Ministerial Committee on the Governance of West Indies Cricket.
Released in 2015, the report had recommended the immediate dissolution of the board whose governance structure it described as “antiquated” and “anachronistic” and the “appointment of an Interim Board whose structure and composition will be radically different from the now proven, obsolete governance framework.
In 2017, Cameron and Company were accused by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley as being part of “a small clique of people” who had hijacked West Indies cricket.
Ricky Skerritt, a former cabinet minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and a past West Indies team manager is now challenging Cameron for the post of presidency. As expected, the war of words has begun with Cameron stating that Skerritt’s time in charge of the team in the early 2000s was a ”period of turmoil ” and he hoped that “we will never get back to those days.”
In reply Skerritt noted that “If Cameron wants to talk about turmoil, perhaps he can explain why former head coaches, Ottis Gibson, Phil Simmons, and the several others who Cameron hastily and summarily dismissed, from both the men’s and women’s teams, have collectively cost CWI well over US$1m.”
Skerritt and his Vice-president running mate, Dr. Kishore Shallow, the President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, according to a press release issued in late February, have created a ten-point ‘Cricket First’ plan which “presents strategies to simplify but strengthen administration, improve the regional franchise programme, and increase support for younger cricketers through international exposure and a more decentralised High Performance System. The plan promises a realignment of team selection criteria with a renewed focus on talent spotting and development. It also calls for a repair of internal and external stakeholder relationships.” It should be noted that there is no mention of adopting the Barriteau Report.
In the release Skerritt was quoted as saying, “After six years as President, Dave Cameron’s intention to implement sweeping changes to the democratic process of decision-making within West Indies Cricket is troubling. His desire to lead CWI as a full-time Executive, is not reflective of the West Indies cricket ethos. By advancing his plans for an autocratic leadership structure, which marginalizes the role of commercially recruited executives, the incumbent has placed his personal thinking diametrically opposed to the values of West Indies cricket.”
Of the six member territories, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Windward Islands are expected to cast their lot with Cameron, while Skerritt will be supported by the Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.
West Indian cricket fans, who are totally fed up with the depths to which the game has sunk in the region, will be hoping that the election result will improve the fortunes of their team.
