ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Legendary fast bowler Sir Curtly Ambrose has lauded the Ricky Skerritt administration for immediately confronting and attempting to fix the player issues facing West Indies cricket.
Prior to Skerritt’s election as Cricket West Indies president a year ago, several experienced players remained at loggerheads with the Dave Cameron-led board and often declined selection while others opted for retirement.
However, with Skerritt immediately overhauling the selection process and announcing his intention to use a player-centred approach to governance, the Caribbean side has seen the return of players like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Lendl Simmons.
“Cricket West Indies before Ricky Skerritt’s tenure has had major issues with players and the board, and a lot of players just didn’t want to represent the West Indies because of issues,” Sir Curtly said here. “What I like about his (Skerritt) thing is that he brought all the players back in, meaning that everyone can be available for selection so we can try and find the strongest West Indies teams and that, to me, is a good thing.”
Simmons was recalled after 2-½ years in the wilderness while Bravo ended his retirement and earlier this year made his first appearance in nearly four years for the Caribbean side.
Pollard, whose appearances had also been infrequent, was appointed captain of the white-ball sides last September, despite having not played a single One-Day International in three years.
Sir Curtly, a former West Indies bowling coach, said Pollard’s appointment had been a progressive move by selectors.
“I like the idea of bringing Pollard as captain and I’ve said that before, in the ODIs and T20s,” said the Antiguan, who snatched 405 wickets from 98 Tests.
“I think he is a fantastic leader. I have a lot of respect for him. He knows how to get the best out of his players and it is going to take a little time as well because we are so far behind.”
Despite the positive moves by Skerritt regarding player involvement, Sir Curtly said the former tourism minister in St Kitts had a massive job on his hands in rescuing West Indies cricket.
“West Indies cricket generally has been in a serious decline for about 20 years and even though president Skerritt and his crew have a lot of things they want to put in place, it is almost impossible to fix West Indies cricket in one year and not even one term, because one term is two years,” Sir Curtly argued.
“It is going to take a lot longer than two years to really implement the things that they want to implement.”
