CWI president Ricky Skerritt
With just about seven months left remaining on Ricky Skerrit’s second two-year term as Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, this would be as good a time as any to assess his tenure. Extremely disappointing would arguably have to be the fairest possible verdict of any such assessment.
Skerritt’s initial March 2019 appointment to the presidency, as Dave Cameron’s replacement, had been greeted with widespread optimism throughout the Caribbean. The prevailing hope was that after six years of Cameron’s at times overly autocratic rule, Skerritt’s breath-of-fresh-air presidency would herald the implementation of policies, procedures and practices that would have resulted in better on-field performances by West Indies teams in all three of international cricket’s current formats.
As president, however, Skerritt’s major focus has instead seemingly been on restoring CWI’s finances from its previous perilous state of reported near bankruptcy into a now far more healthy state. For the outstanding successes he’s achieved in that endeavour he must now be overly applauded.
As president, Skerritt has also quarterbacked the continuing ownership development of the Coolidge Cricket Ground (CCG) as the headquarters hub for West Indies cricket. Just this past July, CWI welcomed the first batch of students to its CCG-located High-Performance Academy.
Against those two major successes, however, there have been far too many failures. Some of these have been causes for global embarrassment among West Indies cricket fans. One of the matches in the recently hosted ODI Series against India was delayed because of non-arrival of players’ kit luggage. That minor fiasco was very quickly followed by the even more embarrassing administrative bungling over the acquisition of required travel visas for players to participate in the final two matches of the series, which were being played in the USA.
There was also the “TapeGate” saga of West Indies players appearing in globally televised international matches clad in shirts with the logo of Sandals the former team sponsors, the associated contract of which had expired since last July, covered by masking tape. Despite vice-president Shallow’s public expression that it was of grave concern and importance to him personally, because of its potentially negative effect on the West Indies cricket brand, Tapegate continued unabated for well over four months from October 2021 through to mid-January, 2022.
Major improvements to the West Indies team’s performances in all three of international cricket’s current formats were expected to be foremost among the many promised outcomes of the 10 Point Robust Cricket First Manifesto upon which the Skerritt-Shallow initial and eventually successful 2019 campaign to depose the incumbent Dave Cameron had been based. Now almost four years later such promised improvements have failed to materialise.
If anything under Skerritt-Shallow’s watch, the West Indies team’s international stature, while having improved slightly in Tests, has declined embarrassingly in both One Day and T2o Internationals. As former two-time champions, the West Indies has been relegated to the highly unwelcomed status of pre-tournament qualifier contenders for this coming October’s forthcoming Australia-hosted T20 World Cup. They are in also realistic danger of missing out on automatic Super8 qualification for next year’s India-hosted 2023 ODI World Cup.
In fairness to both president Skerritt and vice-president Dr Shallow, the actual implementation of some aspects of their initial 10 Point Robust Cricket had been adversely affected by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, not surprisingly, there was a newly adjusted Forward WI Go Plan announced as the duo’s platform for their 2021 second-term re-election.
Their re-election having eventually proceeded unopposed and with the removal of COVID-associated restrictions being continuously implemented, Skerritt and Shallow were in effect free and clear to fully implement their outlined forward intending initiatives. With seventeen of the available second two-year term’s twenty-four months now having come and gone, however, many of the outlined initiatives have seemingly remained unaddressed.
There has been no visible evidence to any degree of a “Greater investment in Grassroots Cricket, in partnership with Governments,” which was the very first of the revised plan’s promised initiatives. If anything, Skerritt and Shallow may have both by now alienated themselves from the cricket-oriented Caribbean political leaders. Some of whom have been publicly critical of decisions that have been made under the duo’s presidential watch.
Much the same can be said for the promised “Expansion of the Coaching Education program to reach over 1000 Foundation Level volunteer coaches across the region, to include teachers and parents.” If that has indeed been accomplished to any meaningful degree, it would now qualify as one of the Caribbean region’s best-kept secrets, as there has been no public announcement of any such developments.
Likewise, if the promised “Review of the Regional Professional Franchise System, to improve standards and to generate a more sustainable cricket and learning culture” has in fact taken place, it couldn’t have been very productive. The standard of cricket played during this year’s Four-Day tournament was abysmally low. And with the August month-end now fast approaching the Annual Super50 tournament, which is normally held during the late October-early November period, hasn’t even yet been scheduled. At least not publicly. So much for “improved standards!”
“Increased Fan engagement, with commercial benefits,” was somewhat of a surprise addition to the Skerritt-Shallow listing of promised revised initiatives. Contrary to increasing fan engagement, CWI can now justifiably be accused of having alienated significant numbers of the team’s fans as evidenced by the continued dismal attendances at hosted international matches. Outlandish, unconscionable ticket pricing in light of the devastating economic effects of COVID, as well as non-existent promotional activities in hosting territories, are only the topmost of a myriad of fan-alienating errors that have been committed during Skerritt’s second term.
While, as previously mentioned, the CWI-owned CCG welcomed the first batch of High-Performance attendees this past July, there has been no public evidence for the accompanying and associated network of Academies across the region which was another of the GO Forward outlined initiatives. Perhaps, in politically savvy timing, such an announcement will be made to coincide with vice-president Kishore Shallow’s declaration of his 2023 presidential candidacy.
If that is indeed the intention of the Skerritt-Shallow duo, it will more than likely be met with justifiable scepticism from at least some if not the greater majority of former West Indies legendary players. CWI’s promise for the establishment of a Past Player’s Consultative Forum is another of its non-starter Go Forward initiatives. On the contrary, as one former legend has reported, when consulted for his opinion not only was his provided advice wholly rejected, but that was also the first and last time he was ever approached.
Many of the still present among us legends would also not have been at all enthralled either by the Skerritt-led CWI’s announcement of its involvement in the Chris Gayle engineered 6ixty, a 10-over fast food “lickit” type addition to the annual Caribbean Premier League. What would have been even more disappointing was the timing of the announcement of the 6ixty’s launching, which was at the same time as this year’s 94th Anniversary of West Indies’ historic Test cricket entry.
Instead of publicly celebrating its involvement with such a tournament, the value of which will forever be unquestionably and exclusively limited to its provided entertainment, the Skerritt-led CWI should have been announcing its intended engagement in the development of a six-year plan toward the restoration of West Indies former, now long since lost, glory in all three formats to coincide with the forthcoming 2028 100th anniversary of its Test cricket entry.
The lack of any such vision has, however, been the hallmark of Skerritt’s presidency, which by its failure to deliver on even its self-made promises has been wholly disappointing.
About The Writer: Guyana-born, Toronto-based, 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.
