debut: 2/16/17
38,886 runs
CWI CEO Dehring responds to ‘massive threat’ from T20 leagues
New Cricket West Indies chief executive Chris Dehring admits franchise leagues are a “massive threat” to the game in the Caribbean but he says CWI must also seize the opportunity that these leagues provide.In recent years, West Indies Test and One-Day International teams have seen several players making themselves unavailable in order to pursue contracts in various T20 leagues around the world.And speaking on the Mason and Guest cricket radio show on the Voice of Barbados Tuesday, Dehring acknowledged that a scenario in which players no longer needed Cricket West Indies to earn a living was serious but he said WI cricket could learn from the international club football model, “where you have private investment coming into the sport, doing all that development work and basically, the English FA basically has to pick the players off at the end.”
Expanding further, Dehring said: “I don’t condemn all this private investment and all these leagues popping up around the world, because it kind of solves one of the challenges.” He added though that, “it creates other challenges...for the West Indies team and future West Indies teams, but it’s not something that I look down on or am afraid...“We just have to find the right way to ride those waves; to get more infrastructure, to get more national resources going into the sport at the territorial board level; get more and more exposed people working in cricket at the different levels. You have to create a pipeline.”
New Cricket West Indies chief executive Chris Dehring admits franchise leagues are a “massive threat” to the game in the Caribbean but he says CWI must also seize the opportunity that these leagues provide.In recent years, West Indies Test and One-Day International teams have seen several players making themselves unavailable in order to pursue contracts in various T20 leagues around the world.And speaking on the Mason and Guest cricket radio show on the Voice of Barbados Tuesday, Dehring acknowledged that a scenario in which players no longer needed Cricket West Indies to earn a living was serious but he said WI cricket could learn from the international club football model, “where you have private investment coming into the sport, doing all that development work and basically, the English FA basically has to pick the players off at the end.”
Expanding further, Dehring said: “I don’t condemn all this private investment and all these leagues popping up around the world, because it kind of solves one of the challenges.” He added though that, “it creates other challenges...for the West Indies team and future West Indies teams, but it’s not something that I look down on or am afraid...“We just have to find the right way to ride those waves; to get more infrastructure, to get more national resources going into the sport at the territorial board level; get more and more exposed people working in cricket at the different levels. You have to create a pipeline.”
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