BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Cricket West Indies presidential candidate, Ricky Skerritt, has debunked the idea that West Indies’ recent success against England can be credited solely to president Dave Cameron’s leadership.
One of the successes attributed to Cameron during his six years in office has been the men and women’s senior teams’ capture of the Twenty20 World Cups three years ago, and the Youth Windies’ title at the ICC Under-19 World Cup that very same year.
And more recently, West Indies stunned touring England in the three-Test series last month to regain the Wisden Trophy for the first time in a decade.
However, Skerritt argued that Cameron needed not only to own the successes but the Windies failures as well, pointing out that the Windies were losing more in all formats under the Jamaican’s tenure.
“The question about performance of the team is a grossly exaggerating topic and I don’t even like to talk about it because the mistake Mr Cameron has made, especially recently, is to try to associate himself with the success of the team but then distance himself from the failures,” Skerritt contended.
“I know better than to associate any one man with the success or failure of a team but he does it when they win. I would suggest to Cameron that he not claim victory in team performance as one of his strengths.
“The team performance is a work in progress and has to continue with a tremendous amount of input, and we have to be better at preparing our young talent and building our young talent to a level of competitiveness on a sustainable basis and that is where we have to invest our resources more.”
Skerritt, who along with running mate Dr Kishore Shallow was hosted by UWI Cave Hill Campus after being initially snubbed by the Barbados Cricket Association, said he was also concerned that CWI had now become a “Cameron-centric” body.
He charged that under Cameron, CWI was now more about the aspirations of its president than fulfilling the mandate of cricket development.
“Sadly it has been my experience that CWI is fast becoming more of a Cameron-centric organisation … and less of a cricket-centric organisation,” the former St Kitts and Nevis Cabinet minister told the audience.
“It’s no disrespect to Cameron himself; I simply am speaking the truth. In short, it means the needs and fancies of Cameron himself have become bigger and more important than our cricket.
“Various indicators have shown me that the politics of Cameron’s survival in this office matter more to him in this time than the well-being of our cricketers.”
He added: “The performance of the elite teams only matter when they win, and the answer to losing a series is to fire the coaches no matter what the financial or other implications.”
Skerritt and Shallow are campaigning ahead of the March 24 CWI elections in Jamaica, which will see them up against Cameron and current vice-president, Emmanuel Nanthan.
The challengers have gained the backing of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and the Leeward Islands Cricket Association but need a majority of the twelve votes are up for grabs – two each from the six territorial boards – in order to topple Cameron.
