Action time for new CWI president

With his March 25, 2023, unopposed election as Cricket West Indies (CWI) president having been secured, Dr Kishore Shallow now faces a very challenging task; that of restoring some improvement to the current sad state of West Indies cricket.

As he goes about his presidential duties, Dr Shallow should seriously consider taking a far more engaging approach than his far too often reclusive predecessor Ricky Skerritt. He should strive to engage as many West Indies cricket shareholders as possible, by means of soliciting their opinions, cooperation, and support for his activities.

The at times marginalized West Indies cricket legends are another group of individuals Dr Shallow should be seeking to engage for their direct input and involvement in chartering a new course for West Indies cricket.

Dr Shallow has already promised to engage that group of former players, having identified, “our legends to lead a Mentorship Program for current players,” as one of the initiatives for the Cricket Development Pillar of his Pushing The Boundaries manifesto.

If he can deliver on that initiative within the first six months of his presidency, he will receive the support of millions of West Indies cricket fans who have been suggesting the very same for the longest while.

Dr Shallow’s engagement of the still active 1970-80’s generation of great former West Indies players, the likes of Sir Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran, Sir Andy Roberts, Sir Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft should not, however, just begin and end with their involvement in a mentorship program for current players. A similarly important and effective involvement would be to also have those great players engaging the much younger generations of aspiring future West Indies cricketers in the 5-15 age groups.

Most recently, Alvin Kallicharran was directly involved in coaching seminars and group discussions with youth cricketers in Guyana’s Berbice and Demerara counties as part of the official launch of activities for his Caribbean Cricket Superhero Children’s storybook. The Alvin Kallicharran Guyana’s Pocket Dynamo Illustrated Children’s storybook chronicles his incredible journey from the humblest of beginnings to becoming one of the greatest, most complete, batting maestros Guyana and the West Indies have ever produced.

Kalli’s story, as well as those of all the aforementioned West Indies cricket legends, now needs to be shared with the next generations of Caribbean cricketers. The Dr Shallow-led CWI should, therefore, establish a “Listening To Legends” initiative that would involve the great former players visiting schools throughout the Caribbean and speaking to schoolchildren about their respective illustrious careers.

Such an initiative would go a long way towards addressing one of the biggest challenges Dr Shallow will now undoubtedly face during his CWI presidential first term, that of regaining cricket’s long-lost popularity among the region’s school-aged children.

Such popularity resulted in cricket being played at every opportunity, on village streets, beaches, schoolyards and community grounds by enthusiastic youths, each one wanting to become the next George Headley, Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs or Wes Hall.

It was also the foundation for the eventual emergence of the aforementioned worldclass players, who as members of the Clive Lloyd and Vivian Richards-led West Indies teams, would play unbeaten for over 15 years as international cricket’s unofficial Test champions!

By engaging his administration in such worthy initiatives, Dr Shallow would go a long way towards dispelling the air of scepticism that surrounds his presidency, as many West Indies cricket fans still harbour very serious doubts as to whether he is indeed the best man for the job.

Having served as the vice-president of the previous administration, Dr Shallow’s means of doing so will be relatively straightforward. All that will be required of him is to fulfil the action promises made in his impressively structured, ‘Pushing The Boundaries’ manifesto!

During the first six months of his presidency, Dr Shallow will be expected to fully deliver on all ten of the manifesto’s outlined “Power Play” initiatives. If he does, he would have successfully emerged from the shadows of Ricky Skerritt.

One of the biggest criticisms against that former administration was its failure to honour most of the action promises made during its four-year tenure.

Re-popularizing cricket among Caribbean schoolchildren will be just one of many major challenges Dr Shallow will encounter in his quest to recharter the course of West Indies cricket. A second major challenge will be the need to increase the amount of longer-version, four-day, cricket being played by the region’s top players.

CWI’s annual regional 4-Day tournament needs to be expanded from its current schedule of just five matches for each of the six participating territory franchises to at least 10, in an effort to provide the highest level of domestic cricket exposure for the next generation of players, CWI should also consider establishing a regulation which would require each of the participating regional franchises to include at least one Under-25 player in their starting XIs for their scheduled 4-Day tournament matches.

Anyone who has heard Dr Shallow speak about West Indies cricket would be immediately impressed by his intelligence and knowledge of its history, as well as his obvious passion for making a meaningful contribution to restoring it to some semblance of its former, long-lost glory. As a leader, Dr Shallow also possesses that very rare quality of personal charisma.

It’s a quality Dr Shallow should now immediately draw on during his first term to secure the cooperative involvement of as many others as possible. Only with such cooperative support from West Indies cricket’s many stakeholders will he be able to do all the things that are now immediately required to get West Indies cricket back on course and sailing full steam ahead.

An established West Indies cricket journalist most recently wrote as his reaction to Dr Kishore Shallow’s unopposed election as CWI President, “A New Day Has Dawned For West Indies Cricket!” All West Indies cricket fans will now be fervently hoping that this is indeed so and that Dr Shallow’s presidency won’t be just another episode in the sad saga of unfulfilled promises and undelivered initiatives that have emanated from CWI for far too long.

Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.