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Ralph Gonsalves, an unconditional West Indies cricket supporter, has an important message for Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr Kishore Shallow.
The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister is unhappy with the way regional cricket is being managed. According to him, “the same bureaucratic, lifeless kind of administration” is failing “to provide results which the people want”.
“West Indies cricket is a public good, and they’re still running it as though it is an entrenched, private operation,” Gonsalves said, during a recent lecture in Dominica.
“We have to get more resources in order that we can develop cricket from the schools. Governments will put money into it and we are putting in money. But we need to see a lot more development taking place.
“I have not seen the sort of changes for the better that I really thought that he would have led. If you look at the performances of the teams, they are below par.
“[…] And there are lots and lots of criticisms by experienced administrators and former Test cricketers about how West Indies cricket is going under his leadership. It’s not a positive record at all.
“I genuinely thought that he would have made some changes for the better,” Gonzalves ended, “but I haven’t seen them.”
He saw, he said, “the same bureaucratic, lifeless kind of administration. We don’t see anything that they are doing which is impacting the game on the field in some positive way to provide results which the people want.”
Outgoing International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Greg Barclay also has a clear message for Dr Shallow. He is unhappy with the direction international cricket looks likely to take.
Interviewed by the Telegraph’s Nick Hoult before handing the reins over to his successor, Jay Shah, Barclay expressed fear that “the game may be sleepwalking to the cliff edge over the dwindling sports broadcast rights market” while “some countries are trying to play Test cricket that maybe shouldn’t”.
Photo: Munir uz Zaman / AFP via Getty Images)
“Legacy and tradition is important,” he tells Hoult, “but I think a lot of the boards are sitting there and spending 80 per cent of their time worrying about Test cricket and how they can make that work, and forgetting that in actual fact the event that is going to grow the game, is going to pay your bills, is the other end of the spectrum from Test cricket.
“So we are rooted in this sort of outmoded and outdated thinking. So I think that’s going to have to change if we want to sustain the game moving forward.
“[…] The only way to get kids to play the game is in short form. They’re not going to turn up and play red ball all day Saturday, all day Sunday. That’s not going to happen.”
Photo: Ashley Allen – CPL T20/ CPL T20 via Getty Images
Saying he loves “what [the West Indies] have done for the game,” but “they barely can make their books balance now”, he asks three pointed questions:
“Is the West Indies in its current form sustainable? Is it time for them to break into each of their islands?”
“The thing is, can they (West Indies) afford to [continue to play Test cricket]?”
Noting that “West Indies cricket continues to live on the breadline”, he predicts the reaction to his suggestion in the region and responds to it:
“The West Indies would say why do we go from full member to 14 associates? But that is about really getting the governance thing right.”
A third party which has a message for Dr Shallow is the combination of the Barbados Cricket Association and the Guyana Cricket Board. Unlike Dr Gonzalves and Barclay, the two regional governing bodies have chosen to convey their views by deed rather than in word.
Neither turned up for the pivotal meeting the Shallow-led CWI convened this week to discuss the adoption of the governance reforms proposed by the Wehby Report, commissioned five years ago in 2019.
(via CWI Media)
A fourth and final group with an indirect message for Dr Shallow is Kraigg Brathwaite’s West Indies Test team. They are currently languishing near the bottom of the nine-team World Test Championship table. They are letting their bats do the talking for them.
Playing at home, they have just shown themselves unable to get the better of lowly Bangladesh. After posting 450 for 9 declared in their first innings of the series, they posted totals of 152, 146 and 185.
In their first innings in the Second Test, they chased 164 and contrived, from a promising 85 for 2, to fall 18 runs short of their target.
(via CWI Media)
The scores of the top three batsmen were 39, 12 and 40. The last eight contributed 3, 2, 2, 5, 7, 8, 6 and 8 respectively.
Chasing 287 in the second innings to win the match and the series, they got to 92 for 3 in the 25th over before surrendering meekly still 101 runs adrift of that goal.
What are we to make of the fact that the first domino to fall in both collapses was captain Brathwaite?
(via CWI Media)
Last week, the skipper broke a Sir Garfield Sobers record with his 86th consecutive Test for West Indies. In his 160 innings across 93 Tests, Sir Garry notched 30 half-centuries and 26 centuries. Brathwaite has managed only 12 centuries and 30 fifties in 96 Tests and 185 innings over the course of his 13 1/2-year Test career.
More to the point, in his last 30 innings, he has reached 50 only twice. And 100 only once.
That’s hardly leading from the front, the hallmark of Sir Garry’s captaincy.
So, I too have a message for Dr Shallow: Kraigg Brathwaite is no Garry Sobers.
(via CWI Media)
But if we want to make the current skipper’s dream of playing for West Indies for 20 years like Sir Garry did come true, then serious consideration should perhaps be given to Barclay’s suggestion that each island go it alone.
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Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
