BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Although admitting that Cricket West Indies (CWI) had to take full responsibility for the regional side's disappointing performance in the ICC Men's Twenty20 World Cup, Chief Executive Officer Johnny Grave has declared he will not be resigning.
He declared on Tuesday night, just over 24 hours after CWI's announcement that Head Coach Phil Simmons was stepping down on the heels of the Windies' first-round exit from the tournament, that he was no quitter.
Appearing on the Mason and Guest show on VOB 92.9 in Barbados, Grave was asked whether he would be in the CEO position when the West Indies begin their 2024 T20 World Cup campaign.
"I am not in control of that. My contract, as I said, runs out in June 2023. But am I a quitter? Am I gonna resign? No, I'm not," he replied.
CHIEF Executive Officer Jeff Miller says that the Jamaica Tallawahs franchise is open to creating a women's team to take part in the Women's Caribbean Premier League (CPL), should the opportunity present itself next season.
The first-ever Women's CPL was staged between August and September and featured three teams — Guyana Amazon Warriors, Barbados Royals, and champions Trinbago Knight Riders.
However, with talk of a possible expansion of the league Miller sees an opportunity not only for it to grow the Tallawahs brand, but develop women's cricket in Jamaica and the wider region as well — with the biggest names in international women's cricket coming to Jamaica to participate.
However, he says that no official communication has been made by CPL's organisers about an expansion.
Former Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dave Cameron has branded the player-centric approach employed by the incumbent administration as a failure, insisting it prioritizes the needs of a few players over those of the region.
Under the new administration, the cricketers, board and players association seem to enjoy a less acrimonious existence, but previous issues of players choosing to make themselves unavailable for the regional team, while continuing to take part in lucrative T20 leagues around the world has remained an issue.
“The Shallow-Skerritt experiment has failed, basically what that Shallow-Skerritt experiment did was it put the players ahead of the region and that is the challenge,” Cameron told the Mason and Guest radio program.
FORMER West Indies Cricket Board (now Cricket West Indies) director Baldath Mahabir believes a new West Indies coach will not change the fortunes of the regional cricket team, saying West Indies cricket needs restructuring in order to see changes in results.
Phil Simmons announced his resignation as head coach on Monday. In his most recent stint, Simmons was the coach of the team from 2019-2022.
His decision to resign came just days after West Indies failed to advance to the Super 12s of the 2022 International Cricket Council T20 World Cup in Australia.
Mahabir doesn’t think a new coach will help.
“No (it will not make a difference). They may be able to move the needle a little bit in the upper direction, but I can’t see anything major happening unless we fix the foundation of West Indies cricket.”
CRICKET WEST Indies (CWI) CEO Johnny Grave has disclosed that despite head coach Phil Simmons’ resignation on the heels of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup debacle, he had the vote of confidence from the Test hierarchy to lead the side into the series against Australia later this year.
Grave, who disclosed that he received a resignation letter from “an extremely emotional” Simmons last Saturday afternoon, said consideration was given to whether the head coach had the wherewithal, emotionally and otherwise, to do the job.
In a statement late Monday officially announcing that 59-year-old Simmons was stepping down, CWI said the head coach’s last assignment would be the two-Test series against Australia from November 30 to December 12.
