(Trinidad Express) West Indies cricket legend Deryck Murray has added his voice to the calls for further changes after the contracts of selectors Roger Harper and Miles Bascombe were not renewed last week. But unlike former player Suruj Ragoonath, Murray has urged again for the structure of Cricket West Indies to be revamped.
On the weekend, Ragoonath, the former chief executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) said the team management structure needed to be changed also, not just the selectors. Speaking on the Barbados-based Mason and Guest cricket radio show on Tuesday, Murray said he was not surprised by the change of selectors. But he asked:
“Are they just going to exchange some for others or is it going to be a real radical change in the way West Indies cricket is run?”
He stressed: “There are circumstances in West Indies cricket that were predictable because we knew for a long time that things were not going well and I keep saying, more off the field that is causing so much of the problems on the field.”
Murray, also a former president of the TTCB, said the status quo must change for meaningful progress to be made.
“The first thing to do is to get the board structure right…At least three reports have been absolutely clear on that. All have said the structure, the composition of West Indies board directorship has to change.”
Murray was part of the Governance Task Force led by Jamaican businessman Don Wehby charged with reviewing and implementing reform of CWI’s governance structure in 2019. He added: “The way it’s constructed at the moment, all you going to get is people vying to get people in…whoever comes from the same territory etc. and we not going to get anywhere. We just going to get exchanging the same thing over and over. And the players are going to get the brunt of it because that’s where the visibility is.
…What happens on the field is a reflection of poor structure…You just don’t see any progress.”
Murray admitted to not knowing what had become of the Wehby Report.
However, asked whether CWI president Ricky Skerritt should take the blame for the current state of Windies cricket, Murray said: “If you are holding people accountable, yes he is, he’s the president. But based on what we know of the structure and composition of the board, how much is really his doing or is it the doing of a clique or cabal below who can out-vote?
Speaking further about the work of Skerritt and vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow, Murray, currently the Trinidad and Tobago High Commissioner to Jamaica said: “They were in at the deep end trying to change minds that were there before; so when they got the (Wehby) Report from the review panel, as far as I know it hasn’t been acted on; so therefore, is that the fault of Skerritt and Shallow? Is that the fault of the system, whatever? The way the board is structured at the moment, it does not lend itself to change unless someone can change the minds of the eight individuals who can actually say, you know what? Let’s adopt this report.”
Also speaking on the programme, former WI wicketkeeper, chairman of selectors Michael Findlay urged greater independence in the make-up of CWI’s cricket committee, as a way to making headway on the field.
“We have enough past outstanding players who can serve very well on a cricket committee and make recommendations towards improving West Indies cricket, but it must be an independent committee. It shouldn’t have any board members in it…It must be totally independent and not afraid to criticise what is going wrong in the cricket.”
Findlay was appointed as an independent director of CWI in 2019 for a two-year term.
And while also expressing his lack of surprise at the departure of selectors Harper and Bascombe, Findlay cautioned: “As West Indians, no matter how passionate we are about the game, we have to accept that it’s going to take a long time for our cricket to get back to even half-way in the (ICC) rankings table.