Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Ricky Skerritt has described his first-year tenure of managing the affairs of cricket in the region as “focused, committed and making progress on all fronts to bring improvements to the game.”
Skerritt noted that amid the testing period of administration, he maintained his burning desire to carry the functions ordained by the office.
“Very focused, very committed to making progress on all fronts [and] trying everything we could to bring improvement in the way we do business; trying to make it a more efficient and productive organisation and trying to get some financial stability,” the CWI President said as he described his first 12 months at the helm.
He was at the time speaking on a talk show in Trinidad.
Skerritt took over from Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron and then vice president, Emmanuel Nanthan, defeating them 8-4 at the CWI’s election. Skerritt, who is the former manager of the regional men’s cricket team, and his running mate, Dr. Kishore Shallow presented a number of attractive proposals for reform in their manifesto; among them a review of the presidential term limits.
“You will be hearing hopefully in another month or so of the Webby Governance report. You know there’s been a lot of governance reports in the past but this one led by Webby and four other colleagues of his should be coming forward to CWI, at least in the first part, within the next month and by the time it makes its rounds and gets accepted either in whole or in part we will have an element in there which speaks to term limits,” he explained.
The CWI President addressed the on-field events which included the hiring and firing of coaches and captains and the prodigal move by Dwayne Bravo to end his retirement prematurely. Yet still, the on-field results have not significantly improved.
“At no time did we promise a change in ranking within 12 months, obviously nothing we do for however long will have a sustainable impact without significant growth in performance and a rise up the ladder in rankings.”
“We are very well aware of that. I have said openly, that at the end of the day [when] I leave this office with a much more transparent and accountable organisation, that is doing a better job. That pales in comparison to the need for that better job to result in better cricket performances on the field…The ultimate objective is to get teams performing at their best, to be at least in the top five.”
He noted that on-field results will be linked to strengthening the overall functioning of CWI.
Selection cultures, financial and transparency reviews through the median are other key areas of focus.
West Indies’ cricket finances were also a topic of discussion where Skerritt noted that limited international cricket here, along with what he called a shortage of “working capital” have aided in limiting what his team was able to do. Basically, “we spend more money than we earn, most years,” he explained in brief.
Not to completely canvas the bleak reality of CWI’s operations, the president expressed his optimism on the way forward. Along with institutional improvements, the need for enhanced grass-root initiatives and in the absence of capital, Skerritt said he plans to use his political cache to achieve that particular goal.
“I’ve written to every Minister of Sports across the region and I have proposed a deal with them where we no longer charge them big money to get cricket which used to be before my time.
“I’ve said to them don’t buy cricket from us anymore. We are going to spread cricket all around the West Indies. But what I want you to do is spend more money for grass-root initiatives.”
