The advent of any New Year is often viewed by individuals as a time for introspective self-reflection. As such as he enters 2025 and the final few months of his initial two-year tenure as Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Dr. Kishore Shallow will perhaps now have far more reason than most to engage in such activity. To honestly self-evaluate the extent to which he has fully delivered on the numerous promises made in his ultra-impressive “Pushing The Boundaries” CWI Presidential Campaign Manifesto.
As impressive as it was, Dr Shallow’s Manifesto was premised on the required successful establishment of four identifiable pillars: Cricket Development; Human Capital; Commercial & Marketing and Governance. With his initial two-year term set to be duly completed in now just a few more weeks, come March 2025, any objective evaluation of each of those four areas would now suggest that except for Commercial and Marketing, there has been very little progress achieved.
Indeed, rather than any real indications of positive progress at last two areas, Human Capital and Governance, have been most recently rocked by downright unsavory developments. In terms of the Cricket Development pillar, progress has also been far more unsatisfactory than encouraging. As the actual on-field results, particularly of the West Indies Senior Men’s team in each or the respective formats would definitely indicate.
During 2024, the penultimate full year of Dr. Shallow’s initial two-year March 2023 – 2025 CWI Presidential term, the West Indies Senior Men’s team participated in nine Tests, 12 ODI and 27 T20I matches against opposing International Cricket Conference (ICC) ranked teams. The respective, highly unflattering, results for each format were as follows: Tests Played 9. Won 2; Lost 6; Draw 1. ODIs: Played 12 Won 6; Lost 6; T20Is: Played 27 Won 14; Lost 12; No Result 1.
Hardly results that are in any way even mildly suggestive of any significant development of West Indies players. Indeed, two and three quarters of the way into Dr Shallow’s tenure West Indies teams still find themselves stuck in the lower, if not lowest, echelons of the ICC’s rankings in each of the respective formats! West Indies are currently ranked 8th in Tests, 10th in ODIs and an identical 247 rating fourth along with New Zealand and South Africa for T20Is.
Within the next three years, from 2025 thru to 2028, there will be significant ICC events on the calendar. Occasions which will provide further indications of the West Indies stature among participating ICC countries. These will include the respective T20I and ODI World Cups in 2026 and 2027, as well as the next 2026-2028 tw0-year ICC Test Championship cycle.
2026 will mark a full decade since the West Indies last tasted championship hours at an ICC T20 World Cup. Supposedly their strongest format. The drought for ICC ODI World Cup championship success has lasted even longer! 1979, a whopping forty-eight and counting by the time the next 2027 championship rolls around, having been the last time the West Indies graced the victory podium at an ICC ODI World Cup. With 2028 also marking the centenary of the West Indies participation in ICC Test cricket, that will also an occasion of historic significance.
Making cricket a preferred sport with increased grassroots and school cricket was one, actually the very first, of ten identified strategic initiatives for Dr Shallow’s Cricket Development Pillar. Engaging the West Indies Cricket Legends to lead a Mentorship Program for current players was listed fifth as another required initiative to be successfully completed.
In terms of the former the results have actually been damaging reversals. Schools cricket has appallingly become non-existent in some CWIbmember territories, notably Guyana. Throughout the Caribbean the state of club cricket has also become equally shambolic.
From 1979-1995 West Indies were the undisputed, virtually unchallengeable, champions of international Test cricket. Many of the proponents of which are now although admittedly advanced in age still around and sufficiently active. Far from their being any Mentorship Program between such greats and current players, however, West Indies cricket fans and followers have instead been subjected to CWI publicly celebrating have sent a dozen young aspiring batters to India for the specific purpose of learning how to properly play spin bowling!
Who in all of India one would now have to ask could ever be better at playing spin than Alvin Kallicharran, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Clive Lloyd, Brain Lara and/or Shivnarine Chanderpaul? To name just the most readily identifiable handful of the Caribbean region’s greatest exponents of the art batting against spin bowling of the highest order.
Surely, for so many reasons, the seven identified young aspiring batters, would have been better served by equal camp setting exposure to any or all of the listed great former West Indian players. So much for the touted Mentorship initiative actually being established.
In terms of Dr Shallow’s three remaining identified Pushing The Boundaries Manifesto pillars, those of Human Capital and Governance have also been recently rocked by controversy if not outright scandal. “Recruit and appoint the best people,” was one of seven required strategic initiatives of Dr Shallow’s Presidential Campaign Manifesto.
Embarrassingly, however, within three months of her publicly lauded appointment as CWI’s Communications & Media Manager, the Trinidad-born Nyssa Pierre’s exit from the position was announced under the most dubious circumstances. The did she quit or was she fired very public spat between CWI and Pierre which ensued was highly embarrassing to the former and not in the least bit indicative of laudable personnel recruitment practices.
As the prescribed subject of so many West Indies cricket improvement Commissions, Governance has long since established itself as a recurring hot topic. Imagine, therefore, the consternation, embarrassment, borderline outright public humiliation Dr Shallow must have suffered by the decision by two of CWI’s territorial Member Boards. Barbados and Guyana, to absent themselves from a scheduled all-important Governance Meeting!
As if that were not enough to have Good Doctor cringing, there was also the experienced ignominy of the 2024 Caribbean Regional Super50 Championship Final having ended farcically. The respective captains of the two participating franchises Barbados and Jamaica refusing to participate in a rain reduced match in direct violation of the standing umpires’ instructions.
Much therefore for Dr Shallow to be overly dissatisfied unhappy about. On a far more positive note, however, there were significant, highly laudable achievements in terms of the fourth, Commercial & Marketing, pillar with CWI having secured several lucrative sponsorship deals. At least two of which, firstly a most welcomed seven-year ESPN Media Rights deal immediately followed by an equally impressive Caribbean Cage agreement , should provide adequate funding for many of the still-to-be completed infrastructural initiatives Dr Shallow had initially identified in his Pushing The Boundaries Manifesto!
In CWI’s recently appointed CEO, the returning Chris Dehring, Dr. Shallow will now also have at his disposal a Caribbean-born individual who is as knowledgeable as they come, in terms of exactly what is required for the restoration of West Indies cricket. As his extensive list of ultra-impressive career accomplishments will readily ascertain, Dehring is also an accomplished action-oriented doer of the highest repute. Providing he can somehow shelve his previously publicly touted thoughts on the dissolution of the West Indies cricket team as a single entity, Dehring should, hopefully, prove to be the right man for the tremendous job at hand!
Two years ago, Dr. Kishore Shallow, was elected CWI President against the backdrop of having served as Vice President in the previous Ricky Skerrit-led administration. That which has henceforth been publicly regarded as having been one of the very, if not absolute, worst CWI Presidential administrations. Characterized as it was by numerous unfulfilled promises.
Being the integrity driven individual that he has publicly professed himself to be, Dr Shallow in the course of his man-in the-mirror 2025 New Year near end of CWI Presidential first term introspection, might, therefore, have found it usefully self-enlightening to evaluate the degree to which he has fulfilled some of the promises made during his tenure. If not those made directly to individuals within Caribbean cricket circles, then certainly in terms of all that was promised in his Pushing the Boundaries Manifesto.
How will Dr Shallow’s first CWI Presidential term be judged? That favorably befitting of a man of substance? Or will he instead be judged to have been as shallow in his fulfillment of promises made as his very surname would suggest!