Having celebrated its 50th Anniversary this past July 4, 2023, Caricom’s leaders have announced their intention to become more directly involved in West Indies cricket. An announcement that has been received as sweet music to the ears of very many West Indies cricket fans.
On and off the field of play, West Indies cricket has been transformed from its previously held status as a major wellspring of Caribbean pride. Instead, it has become an incessantly flowing fountainhead of regional embarrassment. The most recent example of which being the visiting India ODI captain Hardik Pandya publicly issued complaint about his team not having received the basic necessities during their current ongoing Caribbean tour.
Pandya’s complaint came on the heels of the West Indies’ loss of both the Test and ODI Series against the Indians. And that following the West Indies’ failure to qualify for the forthcoming India-hosted ICC ODI World Cup for the very first time in the marquee tournament’s forty-eight-year history.
Major encountered issues surrounding team travel from one match-hosting Caribbean country to the next, appear to have been at the root of Pandya’s complaint. If so it would have come as a wake-up call for both Cricket West Indies (CWI) the regional body responsible for the governance of Caribbean cricket, as well as the leaders of its respective member countries. The Caribbean and neighboring USA are scheduled to jointly host the ICC’s 2024 T20 World Cup next June.
The last thing CWI any of its designated 2024 T20 World Cup hosting match venues country members, or the leaders of those respective territories would want is for their respective international travel destination reputations to be blemished by embarrassing uncomplimentary reports of encountered issues. With twenty teams, their respective accompanying staff, likely hundreds of thousands of visiting fan supporters, as well as the associated tv crews and even more importantly international media all required to be moved flawlessly from one match-hosting venue to the next, it will be a monumental test of Caribbean regional capabilities.
It is a headline issue that should, therefore, garner the attention of Caricom’s Cricket Sub-Committee (CCSC) and CWI when those two bodies meet in the coming weeks as scheduled. Administrative officials of the Caribbean Premier League ( CPL) should deservedly, also be invited to attend that meeting. The CPL’s nearly flawless execution of its own tournament travel-related requirements can serve as an example for CWI to follow and for CCSC to recommend as a model worthy of 2024 T20 World Cup adoption.
Just as importantly, arguably even more so, will be the need for CWI to begin the process of implementing meaningful measures that can stop the continuing downhill slide of the West Indies cricket team’s reputation as a competitive force in international cricket. A slide that has now become so precipitous as to have warranted suggestions from noted former international players that the West Indies team should be disbanded altogether to allow its respective member territories to compete on their own as individual countries.
Among the viable solutions likely to be advanced and discussed at the CWI – CCSC meeting, will be the former’s governance structure. Previously issued Reports, penned by some of the Caribbean region’s most brilliant minds, have recommended a restructuring of CWI’s governance structure. To date, most of those Reports have been ignored by CWI.
The CWI-CCSC meeting should also be seeking to address the overall issue of the continuing decline of interest in and involvement with cricket among Caribbean school-aged children. Identifying initiatives for immediate adoption that can rekindle such interest has become a key factor for the further development of West Indies cricket.
CWI should be suggesting to the CCSC for Caricom member countries implementation that West Indies cricket history should become a part of the educational school’s curriculum. Books written on West Indies cricket and its most illustrious and internationally famous players should become a part of the official literature provided to students at Primary and Secondary schools throughout the region.
Much to discuss when CWI and CCSC eventually meet and many reasons for the latter to now become far more directly involved in West Indies cricket