Regional Leaders to Receive Report on West Indies Cricket in June

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will receive a report on the future development of West Indies cricket when they meet in Grenada in June, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley announced on Friday.

News conference at the end of Regional symposium on West Indies cricket (CMC Photo)Rowley, speaking at a news conference at the end of a two-day CARICOM Regional Cricket Conference on reinvigorating West Indies Cricket,  Rowley told reporters it was important for West Indies, a symbol of regional unity, is brought back to the prominence it once held for the people of the Caribbean.

“We know that we like the game and that it means a lot to us. What we can’t understand is why we are not doing better. Every now and then we get a flicker but the flicker doesn’t blaze into a sustained flame,” Rowley said.

He said that CARICOM leaders have been “feeling this pressure of wanting to do something about this super delayed initiative, and we’ve come to the conclusion that we need to confront the elephant in the room.

“And I think that’s what this conference was meant to do, bring all the stakeholders together. so that their facets and their vantage points could be expressed to everybody else. So I think today, after what happened yesterday and what happened today, all stakeholders will know what other people are thinking, what recommendations are coming from what other quarters, how secure or how useful, how facilitatory your area is,” he added.

Rowley said that the common thread that pulls it down “is that no one facet, no one aspect of this legacy can save itself.

“We need to have some secure, cooperative action to bring about the necessary change. And a lot of the conversation in the last 48 hours had to do with a governance structure, which obviously does not appear to be the best for the delivery that we anticipate.”

Rowley said he expects that the response to that in some quarters will be, “well, change it elsewhere, but don’t change it by me. Have someone else do it, but I won’t be doing it.

“That is not going to get us anywhere. So I would want to say to the media, I’m sure you’re going to ask what is going to happen after today. What I expect to happen is that we will collate all the ideas and recommendations that came up here. And the subcommittee of CARICOM will meet, we’re meeting in Grenada in June.

“ We are almost into May, so it will be the next month. So the next meeting of CARICOM in Grenada will receive a comprehensive report on the state of West Indies cricket  with recommendations,” Rowley said. CARICOM leaders will meet in Grenada from July 3-5

“We will work together to produce for the heads of government meeting in June, the outcome of this gathering and collate the recommendations. And then we will seek to have a whole programme in conjunction with critical thinking, to come up with a smaller group of recommendations and can-do …meetings,” Rowley added.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley told the news conference that her intention for attending the two-day meeting here was “to give people the opportunity to speak, to share, and to see where we can find common purpose, and to see where we can build trust”

She told reporters that she is comforted that the regional symposium have resulted in “not just the will to do it, but …to find the surrounding of a framework that allows us to be able to see progress”.

She said she believes the Wehby Report of 2020 that outlined several recommendations regarding Cricket West Indies (CWI) should have been acted upon, noting “by any stretch of the imagination, for a company not to have acted on a report, for a government not to have acted on a report that came in four years ago, even if it is to reject everything, we need to put it to bed one way or the other, whether it is to act at all to modify it or to reject it.

“I believe that there is merit in a lot of it, and the precepts which it honours are precepts that are sacred to all forms of governance, and we therefore should not find ourselves trapped in a 20th century model, at a time when the whole structure of the game and the computing forces have changed, from traditional test circuits to being able to manage…,” Mottley said.

She said while this issue is about cricket, fundamentally, this is about national and regional development.

“This is about the development of our people, at the very time when our young people are, being threatened with all other kinds of distractions, some wholesome, some not wholesome. “And we therefore need to put the structures and the investment in place as a matter of, urgency. I don’t believe that you can cross a chasm in small steps, and therefore it means that we need to have that sense of urgency.

“Why? Because in any event, what we put in needs time to sprout what comes out. And therefore I hope that from the development end of it, that we can settle on that before, the end of the year.

“I believe that, as you said, the recommendations will come ahead. But I do feel that the  West Indies and the territorial boards can start a conversation so that by the time we reach heads, there is clarity as to what they are united upon and what they are still divided upon with respect to the governance aspect.”

Mottley said that while the governments have the power of legislation, “we have the power of development support for infrastructure and programmes, and we have the capacity to be able to mentor but also to be able to facilitate and bring people together, particularly where there are difficulties and obstacles”.

She told reporters that she is knows defeat, as well as victory “and victory, by the way, is sweeter, but the reality is, victory breeds an environment where people want to come and join”.

She said cricket is a global sport that has allowed Caribbean people to be known internationally, adding “how many Caribbean footballers do you know globally? How many Caribbean basketballers, do you know globally? How many Caribbean volleyballers do you know globally?

“And unlike the last couple of generations, this current generation gets paid significantly better in cricket, because of the advances of television and gaming and all of those things than their, previous generations”.

CWI president  Dr Kishore Shallow said he was pleased with the interest shown by regional leaders towards the West Indies cricket future development, saying “to have regional leaders taking the time to come to a symposium, one, to initiate a symposium, and then to find the time dedicated to discussing issues, that in itself is a testament of how critical West Indies cricket means to them.

“As President of of Cricket West Indies, I feel very privileged to have regional leaders so committed to improving West Indies cricket and suddenly, I mean, there’s no option than to optimise the support that I’ve received and I’m sure will continue to receive from the Prime Ministers.

“There are tremendous opportunities there for us to improve and this is not five, 10 years down the line. I believe that we can have instant improvement of West Indies cricket by adopting some of the solutions offered to us over the last, well, day and a half,” Shallow told reporters.

He said while governance is a sensitive issue, he believes “we can advance this as swiftly as possible.

“It is urgent and I am hoping that within six months, six weeks between now and World Cup, at least the end of World Cup, ….that the president of the territorial  boards could be engaged in how we could swiftly adopt these recommendations by the Wehby Report.”

Shallow acknowledged that the CWI has received several other reports over the years, “but the great thing about the Wehby Report is that it has revealed those reports and suggested to us in a recent time what is most relevant currently.

“And I think that if the time is now, and again because I am quite aware of the genuine support from the current leaders, then I have no doubt at all,  we are going to get that over the line.

“Also, there are other opportunities because while, we fix the governance, as I alluded to earlier, there are other areas for improvement that, we cannot delay any further,” he said, noting that the CWI’s financial situation has fluctuated over a period of time.

“ And so, we have to ensure, put a mechanism in place where we are financially sustainable. And the great thing about it is that I am confident, quite confident, that this could be done within,” Shallow said , adding “the Cricket West Indies has to commit and identify those ways of being self-sustainable”.

He said there are opportunities and establishing a commercial arm is one of them “ a company that would give us value for our money and ensure that the return on such investment, is great and would be beneficial to cricket going forward.

“ So we’ll definitely embark on or accelerate on establishing that commercial arm. We have thought about the need to engage and involve our legends. They are aging and so we cannot afford to miss the opportunity.”

Shallow said that there is also a need to strengthen the club structure, adding “we have, to find ways of incentivising people for world class cricket.

He said he had discussions with Prime Minister Mottley and the idea of having an original club, championship, saying “I think that is viable and the intention is to establish a task group immediately to explore how Cricket West Indies could support a club championship, determine the format and all of that.

“And so, from where I sit at Cricket West Indies, this (symposium) was an opportunity truly relished,” he said, adding “it’s been a really revealing type of event and I want to also establish clearly that, some important baselines were committed to”.