The effort to restore West Indies cricket to its former prominence faces numerous obstacles, given the various issues affecting the region’s position in international cricket. However, with dedicated collaboration among stakeholders and the broader Caribbean cricket community, a resurgence remains achievable. These sentiments were expressed by Cricket West Indies CEO Chris Dehring during a media address following a two-day emergency summit held on Monday at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad.
Attendees of the summit included members of the Cricket Strategy & Officiating Committee (CSOC), legendary West Indies cricketers, former players, current team captains Roston Chase and Shai Hope, the Men’s Team Management, and CWI executives. The meetings, held on August 10 and 11, centered around a wide array of interconnected topics impacting team performance, according to reports from CWI.
Key areas discussed reportedly encompassed the effectiveness of talent development pathways, the competitiveness of domestic leagues, support systems for international competition, stakeholder alignment, financial investment, player motivation and retention, as well as mental resilience at the elite level.
During the post-summit media session, which featured CSOC Chair Enoch Lewis, Sir Clive Lloyd, Brian Lara, Dehring, CWI Cricket Director Miles Bascombe, and others, Dehring emphasized that revitalizing West Indies cricket requires unified effort.
“I want to emphasize that Cricket West Indies can’t do it alone. There are many elements in cricket’s production pipeline that are not within our control, such as age group cricket within the individual countries and school programmes that are run independently.” stated Dehring.
“While the raw talent is there, we face an incredible commercial and national resource gap between ourselves and the other cricket playing territories to mine, develop and produce professional cricketers that are fit for purpose.”
“That gap, including resources like academies and facilities like high performance centers, can only be bridged if we come together as a region and use what we have to challenge that gap. I have every confidence that collectively, we can overcome these hurdles and put West Indies cricket back where we all know it belongs.”
A common theme throughout the summit was the recognition that the issues are systemic.
“The strategies we implement, we have to look at addressing them across the entirety of our cricket system. The first part is identifying the challenges at every level of our production pipeline and coming up with the strategies in detail,” CWI Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe noted. “We had a lot of very fruitful discussions, suggestions and recommendations and our role now is to figure out how we put all of that together to ensure that we have a holistic solution that will result in meaningful systemic change for the betterment of West Indies cricket.”
In the media briefing, cricket legends Sir Clive Lloyd and Brian Lara reflected on the discussions’ productivity, highlighting their frankness and focus on actionable outcomes.
Lara pointed out, “I think one of the takeaways that I will mention is the fact that we are not on the same level playing field as other playing countries.”
“Back in the day where skill was the prominent factor we excelled, but the game has evolved, particularly with technology and analytics. We must now shift our focus towards these areas to find ourselves back to being very competitive,” he added.
Sir Clive Lloyd also referenced insights from current coaching staff: “They were very clear about the things that are needed and why they are needed. I sincerely hope that we will be able to provide what they have asked for because it was very clear from what was presented, why they are important. So, I look forward to the results in the future.”
“When we were in the ascendency everybody wanted to play against us, and we became the cash cow for territories like England, Australian and India. Now, we need a better share of the pie,” Sr Lloyd concluded.
CSOC Chair Lewis underscored that the summit aimed to gather honest, comprehensive feedback to fundamentally reform West Indies cricket:
“The goal is to ensure that the committee provides the CWI Board with well thought-out and fundamentally sound recommendations that will move West Indies forward to a place where we can all be proud of the end product,” he said.
“We expect that some of these recommendations will be executed over the short term, and others over a longer term, as input from other stakeholders will be essential.”
Dehring highlighted several areas identified for improvement, including upgrading facilities, practice pitches, and regional tournaments. He also noted the challenge of correcting ingrained technical habits developed during youth and regional play, which often only become apparent at the international level.
One proposed solution is the establishment of a high-performance center equipped with state-of-the-art training facilities, along with strengthening territorial academy systems to embed West Indies’ cricketing philosophy early in player development.
Bascombe emphasized that deficiencies in coaching education and certification hinder the production of regional coaches capable of meeting modern cricket standards. CWI’s recent appointment of a coaching development consultant aims to address these gaps temporarily, while a comprehensive overhaul of the coaching education system is underway.
In closing, Dehring called on the entire Caribbean cricket community to unite behind this vision, emphasizing that revival will require collective effort and unwavering commitment to excellence.
Following the summit, CWI management will develop detailed proposals for the Board of Directors, focusing on swift implementation of agreed-upon strategies. CWI shared that the public will be kept informed about the Board’s decisions and subsequent action plans.
Many good young players are either quitting or looking to go elsewhere in frustration simply because they are being left out in favour of players who are not so good but have the “right” connections or relatives.
Also supposed High Performance Academies are failing these players as they do nothing to enhance the talented players that go to them
The various territories have got to stop elevating players simply because they are some prominent person’s son or relative or friend, and pick players strictly on merit
West Indies cricket was world beaters back in the 70’s and 80’s because we had cricketers in England learning the proper way. Bowling, batting, fielding, but also concentration, discipline being professionals all with a Caribbean flare. when that stopped back in the 90,s West Indian went to shi. and never recovered so do the math.
Hope it won’t be another talkshop.
CWI, (Cricket West Indies) as is now, has too many non producctive officials, too many directors.Our territorial Boards are not serving the region well.Take Leeward Islands for example, Enoch Lewis as president has held this post for 20 plus years, yet the Leewards First Class season is extremely disorganised. Most Dominicans do not even know that Clement Marcellin is Windwards representative to CWI. We have a passive cricketing public, who only look for victories, nothing else. The Caribbean Cricket lovers are not holding those officials to account. They are the ones in charge of our regional cricket. Questions about our grounds and the availability of Windsor Park, lets take it to Marcellin. All the T-10 nonsense, spoiling our young players, he should answer to that.
Bajans, Jamaicans, Guyanese Trinis, hold your Boards responsible.
They should give us good pitches, train coaches, and provide all cricketing infrastructure.
MEME