It’s now been approximately six months since Dr Kishore Shallow was elected unopposed as president of Cricket West Indies (CWI). It is the perfect time for Dr Shallow to provide fans and all others interested in West Indies cricket with a status report update on his presidential activities to date. The necessity for Dr Shallow to provide a status report is dictated by two factors.
Firstly, his March 2023 presidential election was made against and despite the rather dubious backdrop of his role as vice president in the previous Ricky Skerritt-led administration. Secondly, and even more importantly, Dr Shallow made some very bold promises during his presidential campaign. Indeed, his entire campaign was centered on the foundation of an impressively constructed manifesto that boldly promised to become immersed in ‘Pushing The Boundaries’ toward the required restructuring of West Indies cricket.
Moreover, and as was indicated in a previous Wickets Hitting article to mark the first three months of Dr Shallow’s presidency, his ‘Pushing The Boundaries’ manifesto had promised the completion of 10 “Power Play” initiatives. At the very least, and as a means of defending his integrity which we can only assume is of suitable significant importance to him, Dr Shallow must now provide a report on his completion of those promised objectives.
At the risk of repetition, and for the benefit of all those who may now still be unaware of or might have forgotten Dr. Shallow’s promised six-month Power Play initiatives, they were as follows:
1. Meeting with key stakeholders. Engage Governments, Corporate Caribbean, Legends of our cricket, WIPA and global Cricket Counterparts to forge strategic partnerships to advance West Indies cricket.
2. Revise Committee Structures. Establish purposeful committees with appropriate personnel to improve the overall efficiency of CWI.
3. Review Territorial Boards (TBs) Development Funding. Assess the financial positions of TBs and provide them with a more sustainable and favourable funding model. Debt practices, and personnel, to identify opportunities for improvement, with the aim of increasing productivity.
4. Governance Reform. Strengthen the philosophy of Unity of Purpose with key stakeholders while continuing the evolution of CWI governance to ensure it is in alignment with modern-day best practices, and culturally applicable.
5. Audit Training and Playing Facilities. Co-repayment will be prioritized!
6. Establish a diverse Commercial Arm. Assemble a group of business and marketing experts to identify new commercial opportunities to increase revenue for CWI.
7. Revise Financial Management Strategy. Establish best practises to gain a greater degree of efficiency with CWI financial management.
8. Champion an Under 23 Program. Initiate and fund a structured Under- 23 program across the region that will complement the Emerging Players program.
9. Conduct a Human Resources Audit. Examine our HR policies, conduct a thorough assessment of the facilities across the region. This would be the initial phase of a broad capital project to improve cricket infrastructure across the region.
10. Implement Franchise Review Recommendations. Implement the recent recommendations to improve the franchise system.
To be completely fair to Dr Shallow, while there has been no visible evidence of the completion of any of the listed Power Play initiatives, it must also be noted that most are of the backroom, internal administration variety that would not likely ever be within the general public’s view. For all we know, under Dr Shallow’s guidance many of the activities may indeed have been at least initiated if not entirely completed. The point is, however, that having publicly promised that these objectives would be completed within the first six months of his presidential tenure, the passage of that time frame now behooves Dr Shallow to provide a report on the respective status of each initiative.
As indicated in his manifesto, Dr Shallow’s view would have seen the completion of such initiatives as being vitally essential to the overall objective of restructuring West Indies cricket towards a far more positive future.
As has happened to others in the past and will very likely be the same experience for those charged with the onerous task of administering West Indies cricket, in-office priorities could very well be radically changed by the requirements of the day.
If that has indeed been Dr Shallow’s experience within the first six months of his presidential tenure, causing him to completely restructure his priorities in the face of far more urgent realities, no one should hold that against him. As the old Caribbean saying would indicate, “food a pot and food a plate isn’t always the same!”
Whatever Dr Shallow’s first six months in office experience may have been in actuality, he should still publicly provide a report on his activities for the period. Even more importantly it would be most prudent for Dr Shallow to also outline his administration’s plans for the immediate future of West Indies cricket. With seven Caribbean countries and three USA cities, having been identified by the ICC as match venues for next June’s West Indies – USA jointly hosted 2024 T20 World Cup, there’s much to be excited about.
Playing at home as they will be, and hopefully in front of supportive and large home crowds, the West Indies will arguably have its best possible chance to claim the T20 World Cup for an unprecedented third time.
The opportunity, therefore, now definitely exists for Dr Shallow’s led CWI to galvanize the entire Caribbean region towards the unified pursuit of that objective.
In keeping with and in fulfillment of Power Play 1 of Dr. Shallow’s ‘Pushing the Boundaries’ manifesto: Governments, corporate Caribbean, Legends of our cricket, WIPA and global cricket counterparts should indeed now be engaged to forge strategic partnerships to advance West Indies cricket.
All the way to ICC 2024 T20 World Cup Championship glory!
A key individual in the worthwhile pursuit of any such objective should be CWI’s recently appointed Director of Cricket, Miles Bascombe. In the three months that have now passed since his appointment to the post, Bascombe has been invisible to the public and or media. As yet, there has not been even a single publicly issued announcement as to his formulated plans for the fulfillment of his new role. More so, his non-visibility has come against the backdrop of his highly controversial appointment to the position.
Bascombe’s appointment was questioned in many circles. Some argued against his experience and qualifications for such an important role. Others raised their eyebrows at the inescapably obvious Vincentian ties between Bascombe and Dr Shallow.
It is even more reason then for Bascombe to have by now publicly come out with a bold outline as to how he intends to effectively silence his critics and doubters. His nonactivity to date in this regard has, therefore, only served to add further fuel to the already flickering flames of doubt that have existed about his abilities to fulfill his new role to any degree of satisfaction.
For sufficiently good reasons, therefore, public statements should now be forthcoming from both Dr Shallow and Miles Bascombe on their activities to date and intentions for the future. Don’t hold your breath though for any such manifested activity!
About The Writer: Guyana-born, 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.