PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop maintains the wrong call was made to overhaul the entire management team of the senior men’s side on the eve of last year’s 50-overs World Cup in England.
A year after former St Kitts and Nevis cabinet minister, Ricky Skerritt, captured the Cricket West Indies presidency, the decision to remove controversial Englishman Richard Pybus and replace him with former West Indies batsman Floyd Reifer, has remained a contentious talking point.
And Bishop told CNC3’s ViewPoint considering the fallout from such a move, some measure of patience with the then management team could have been exercised.
“Maybe on reflection there should have been a little more patience, from my point of view, handed down just prior to that World Cup,” said Bishop now a well-respected international television cricket analyst.
“Instead of those drastic changes because the chemistry of the team and what they were building towards would’ve needed time to blend.”
The decision by the previous Dave Cameron administration to appoint Pybus proved a divisive one, resulting in rancour and eventual public spats between CWI directors.
However, the story on the field was a different one as West Indies stunned England in the first two Tests of the three-match series in the Caribbean, to retain the Wisden Trophy for the first time in a decade before further defying odds to steal a 2-2 draw in a highly competitive five-match one-day series
Once Skerritt defeated Cameron in hot-contested elections staged in Jamaica last year March, the new CWI administration moved swiftly to remove Pybus and his staff, along with the entire selection panel.
West Indies, who entered the World Cup ranked number nine, then endured their worst-ever campaign at a 50-overs World Cup, losing six of their nine games and winning just two, to finish ninth of 10 teams and miss out on the second round.
The 52-Bishop, who took 161 wickets from 53 Tests between 1989 and 1998, said the game in the Caribbean faced several challenges to its development in particular, finance and funding.
Citing Australia’s example, Bishop said West Indies would continue to lag behind larger nations because of their easier access to financing.
“I’ve been to Australia and have seen what Australia are able to pump in economically into their women’s side of things,” the Trinidadian explained.
“We don’t have those revenue streams and I think that must be understood. All the things we’re talking about are grassroots, it’s on the ground. [These programmes] require finance, they require revenue and that’s going to be the consistent challenge for us here in the Caribbean.”
