Skerritts new-look CWI brings an end to the previous administration defence
Thu, Oct 17, '19
And…. breathe. It has been a roller coaster period for Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt, Cricket West Indies itself, the West Indies team and the fans; as we approach seven months since that Sunday on the 24th of March 2019 when Skerritt defeated then CWI President Dave Cameron by eight votes to four to rise to the summit of West Indies cricket. With that, Caribbean fans, even now, continue to witness what can be labelled as the domino effect we all suspected would follow a Skerritt victory. Below is a timeline of the major decisions in the Skerritt era of West Indies cricket.
Mere days after his appointment, the then president was quoted by Cricbuzz, on Saturday April 6, saying “There must be no reason for non-consideration other than cricket or medical or physical health.” A well-intentioned statement, which many suspected was an arm around the shoulders of those who had been ‘blacklisted’ by the outgoing administration.
A week later, six weeks prior to the 2019 ICC World Cup and two months after leading the Test team to a famous 2-1 series victory over England, a series the West Indies led 2-0—then interim head coach Richard Pybus was sacked. Chairman of Selectors Courtney Browne and the entire selection panel suffered the same fate. Interim head coach Pybus was replaced by another interim head coach, former West Indies cricketer Floyd Reifer. While, Robert Haynes was appointed interim Chairman of Selectors on the back of the dismissal of Courtney Browne. A month following their sacking, Courtney Browne and Eldine Baptiste filed a lawsuit against Cricket West Indies for the unfair dismissal from their jobs as selectors. This was less than two months after CWI settled a $300, 000 lawsuit against them by then Afghanistan head coach—Phil Simmons.
On September 9, 2019 President Ricky Skerritt, Vice-President Dr. Kishore Shallow, CWI Director of cricket Jimmy Adams, CEO Johnny Grave and Kieron Pollard sat before members of the media at the Trinidad Hilton to confirm suspicions that both Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite had been relieved of their respective positions in the limited overs teams—verifying that both roles would now be filled by 32-year-old Pollard.
The Vice-President, who lead the selection task force which reviewed the then selection system, in explaining the process, stated that “in the process we actually engaged some 2700 fans and different stakeholders across the region and also a few outside of the region.” In relaying the task force’s findings, he stated that “we actually had no formal selection policy. What we were told by former selectors is that they pretty much, as a panel, came up with informal selection policies to guide them. Of course, we can see why there were inconsistencies over the years”. Therefore, Cricket West Indies now intends to “implement a new selection policy (based on form and performance, fitness, team balance, mental capacity, technical ability and commitment)”.
CWI were direct in their search for a permanent head coach, telling potential applicants that “persons without West Indian heritage need not apply”. And on Monday October 14, 2019 Cricket West Indies, through a press release, confirmed that the favourite for the position of WINDIES Men’s head coach—Phil Simmons—had indeed been reinstated. The press release stated “Simmons served previously for a short period as Head Coach of the West Indies Senior Men’s team, during which he coached the team to the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup title, following which he was controversially dismissed. He has since served as the Head Coach of Afghanistan, who he helped qualify for the first time for the 2019 ICC ODI CWC. His tenure as head coach of Ireland, saw them improve their ICC rankings and qualify for all major ICC events. Simmons’ latest coaching success came just two days ago when he coached the Barbados Tridents to the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League title with an impressive victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors in Saturday’s final.”
While, we can each make up our own minds and form our own opinions on the decisions that this new-look Cricket West Indies has made, the one thing these decisions signal is the termination of the dangling of the ‘previous administration’ carrot to the stakeholders. After all, the selectorsin place were appointed by the new board, the criteria to be used to select players were implemented by this same board and the Captain is of the new board’s choosing.
Ricky Skerritt has put the correct man (Phil Simmons) in the coach’s seat. The captaincy and cricketing intelligence of Kieron Pollard that has been lauded as almost generational has been brought in by the board to lead West Indies cricket forward. And the now battered door, which kept some players out of West Indies cricket, has been reopened by this CWI. Therefore, will the answers to queries in the future still include “the previous administration…”? Let’s wait and see.
