Last Sunday, the Twenty-second Annual General Meeting of Cricket West Indies (CWI) was held, with Mr Ricky Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow being duly re-elected unopposed to serve a second two-year term as President and Vice President, respectively.
The AGM, which was held virtually via Zoom, had been previously slated for 28th March, but had to be rescheduled since the representatives of the Guyanese and Barbadian boards had opted to boycott the meeting leaving the 12-member board one person short of the required quorum. Secre-tary of the Guyana Cricket Board Mr Anand Sanasie and Barbados Cricket Association Vice-President Mr Calvin Hope, who were challenging the incumbents for the offices of President and Vice-President, respectively, offered the lame excuse of the board’s failure “to conform with the statutory requirements of the Articles of Associa-tion and present audited financial statement of CWI,” a point of view which the Skerritt Administration ardently disputed by duly providing a timeline of events to show otherwise.
The next day, 29th March, the Guyana Cricket Board held its first elections in 12 years, and Mr Sanasie was ousted from office. Subsequently, Messieurs Sanasie and Hope withdrew their bids for CWI office.
Upon his re-election to office, Mr Skerritt stated, “I am humbled and deeply honoured to be re-elected to serve as CWI President for a second term. I take the responsibility to lead the Board of this prestigious organization, most seriously. We have much unfinished work to do, and we renew our pledge to work untiringly to help achieve sustainable improvement, both on and off the field, for West Indies cricket.”
West Indies cricket fans, many of whom rejoined the bandwagon following the team’s performances in Bangladesh late last year and subsequently, are delighted to hear the words, “…much unfinished work to do…,” and are likely interpreting this as referring to the Wehby Report. This report, which was commissioned by the Skerritt Administration to review the governance structure of CWI, was presented to the board in August 2020 and has yet to be adopted.
The Wehby Report, the fourth of its kind since 2007 to be presented to the board, whose archaic structure dates back to deep in the previous century, follows the Patterson, Wilkin and Barriteau reports. All of these reviews of the board’s operations were prepared by some of the sharpest minds in the Caribbean. They all echo the same fundamental theme that West Indies cricket administration needs to be modernized, emulating those of other Test-playing countries, and to be run as a professional organization. The previous three ultimately suffered the same fate. They were shunned by the board and discarded to a storeroom to gather dust.
In his initial run for the presidency, Mr Skerritt had campaigned for this long overdue change. Once he took over the reins of the CWI, he kept his word and pushed for the establishment of the Task Force for Corporate Governance, stating in his ‘Govern-ance Reform Report – Next Steps’ last September, “… Hopefully good sense will prevail, and CWI will show the world that we are serious about modernization and improvement…”
President Skerritt, a former manager of the West Indies team, who obviously has a love for the game and cares very passionately about West Indies cricket, clearly wants to keep his promise and oversee this long overdue change during his time at the helm. However, there is one stumbling block that the president faces in his bid to complete the unfinished business.
That barrier comes in the form of CWI Board member, Mr Conde Riley, the President of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), who from his reckless statements over the past two years seems hell bent on keeping the West Indies grounded in the past.
On Thursday, 13th August 2020 Mr Riley told a media conference in Bridgetown, Barbados that the BCA had established a “high-powered” committee to examine the recommendations put forward in the Wehby Report and promised that it would perform “surgery” with a sense of urgency.
“I remember the last report was the Barriteau Report which said they would dissolve Cricket West Indies – it cannot be done in law. I’m not a lawyer… but I know you cannot take over a company,” Mr Riley declared. “The only body that can do that would be the shareholders and all six shareholders would have to agree to that. If one says no, it’s over. But we will report to our membership and the people of Barbados in due course once that committee does its surgery on this report.”
According to Barbados Today in July 2020, Mr Riley, who has served on the CWI Board since 1998, was upset by Dr Shallow’s public statement that CWI should not second the USA Cricket Associa-tion’s nomination of former CWI President Dave Cameron, who served for six tumultuous years, for the ICC presidency. Mr Riley ranted on the popular Mason and Guest Talk Show that “we should support our own.” Unbelievable really, after all the bacchanal that took place on Mr Cameron’s watch.
Two weeks ago, Mr Riley opted to hitch his country’s wagon to a CWI presidential candidate from a territory which had not held elections in 12 years, and then failed to show up for the AGM. Looking from across the Caribbean Sea, anyone listening to, and observing Mr Riley’s actions, cannot be blamed for experiencing a sense of déjà vu. Are these the words of a CWI Director or the most eccentric West Indian cricket fan of yore, the late King Dyal? The vocal supporter of all teams opposing the West Indies, King Dyal, was renowned for appearing in a different suit for each session of play during Test matches at the Kensington Oval, seems to have been reincarnated.
Mr Riley aside, true West Indies cricket fans will fully support the concerted efforts of the newly elected board to catapult the governance structure into modern times. It is now up to Mr Skerritt and team to get on with the unfinished work.
