During the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC), Cricket West Indies CEO Chris Dehring urged tourism partners who financially benefit from West Indies cricket to share responsibility for its recovery and continued health.
The remarks were delivered during the September 30th – October 3rd conference in Barbados, which brought together regional leaders to engage in discussions on the future of Caribbean tourism and its intersections with other industries.
Dehring revealed that in the last fifteen years, CWI has spent approximately US$82.5 million on airlift and an additional US$120 million on hotel accommodation across the region.
Veteran cricket commentator, Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira believes that Cricket West Indies (CWI) erred by sending a West Indies senior team to play minnows Nepal instead of a developmental team.
The regional side, led by Akeal Hosein suffered a shocking 2-1 defeat against their lower-rated opponents in their recently concluded three-match T20I series in the United Arab Emirates last month.
During an interview on Isports on i95.5 FM on Friday, Perreira, who spent over 50 years as a commentator, said it would have been better served to send a young, inexperienced side instead of including some of the senior players.
“We had beaten Nepal the previous visit with an ‘A’ team led by [Roston] Chase. I didn’t see the need to put the West Indies’ good name on the line by picking the team that they picked."
Roston Chase has voiced concerns about the "infrastructure problems" and the continuous "struggle for finances" in the Caribbean, but said that he didn't want to use that as an excuse for West Indies' poor performances in Test cricket in recent times.
West Indies have lost five of their six Test matches this year. This includes being bundled out for 27 in the third Test against Australia in July. On Saturday, they went down by an innings and 140 runs to India on the third day of the opening Test in Ahmedabad.
"I think the systems in the Caribbean are a bit poor in terms of training facilities and stuff," Chase said after the game. "I am not using that as an excuse or something to hide behind for poor performances that we've been putting out lately. I still think that the onus is on the players to find some way to churn up runs and wickets and stuff.
"But what I would say is yes, there is obviously a struggle in the Caribbean for finances. So whatever help we can get, if they are planning to get the help, I hope that we do get it so that we could strengthen the infrastructure for cricket."
The decline of West Indies cricket is not a natural fall from grace but the product of decades of mismanagement, incompetence, and misplaced priorities by Cricket West Indies (CWI). Once the most feared and respected cricketing force in the world, the West Indies now languish near the bottom of the international ladder. This collapse cannot be blamed on talent, for the Caribbean still produces cricketers of skill and promise. Instead, it is the governing body’s failure to manage, nurture, and respect that talent which has brought West Indies cricket to its knees.
At the core of this failure lies chronic incompetence. Rather than instituting structures to rebuild the game at all levels, CWI has often operated like a private club, riddled with nepotism and favoritism. Decisions about selection, administration, and coaching appointments frequently appear to be made not on merit but on personal ties and political considerations. A glaring example is the repeated appointment of unqualified coaches. Instead of hiring experienced individuals with proven records in red-ball cricket or international management, CWI has installed coaches lacking both the credentials and the gravitas to command a professional dressing room. Worse still, the current coach has been handed sweeping authority over selection and strategy, operating with almost no accountability. Such unchecked power has resulted in inconsistent team policies, poor man-management, and a steady erosion of discipline and structure within the squad.
Bernard Denis Julien, the elegant Trinidadian allrounder who helped usher the West Indies into the one-day era, has died at 75. A member of Clive Lloyd’s victorious 1975 World Cup squad, he was confirmed to have passed away in Trinidad on the night of October 4.
Born in Carenage on March 13, 1950, Julien was that rare blend: a right-hand batter who could both swing it briskly left-arm fast-medium and, when needed, switch to left-arm spin. He played 24 Tests and 12 ODIs for West Indies from 1973–1977, scoring 866 Test runs at 30.92 with two centuries and taking 50 Test wickets; in ODIs he added 18 wickets.
His Test batting announced itself at Lord’s in 1973: a sparkling 121 from 127 balls in only his third Test, alongside Garry Sobers. With the ball he was a partnership-breaker, his best figures 5/57.
In the 1975 World Cup he was vital in the middle overs: 4/20 v Sri Lanka, 4/27 in the semi-final v New Zealand, and a composed 26* in the final at Lord’s as West Indies beat Australia. Contemporary tributes have rightly highlighted that measured spell-bowling and his cool under pressure; some accounts also credit him with 2/38 in the final’s squeeze.
Julien’s county years with Kent (1970–1977) cemented his reputation as a crowd-pleaser - -cap #152 -- contributing with both bat and ball in title-winning sides and leaving an imprint on those who watched him glide to the crease and whip through the line.
His international career, like several of his generation, was shortened by the pull of World Series Cricket and later the rebel tours to apartheid-era South Africa, after which he did not return to the West Indies side. Post-playing, he served in sport and coaching back home in Trinidad and Tobago.
Stylish, versatile, dependable—that’s how team-mates and historians have remembered Bernard Julien. For West Indies supporters, he remains the archetypal 1970s allrounder: afro haloing the whites, easy rhythm with bat and ball, and a knack for delivering precisely when a game needed tilting. Rest easy, Bernard.
