AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF CRICKET WEST INDIES
Date: October 2, 2026
To: Dr. Kishore Shallow, President, Cricket West Indies
CC: The Board of Directors, Cricket West Indies; Regional Territorial Cricket Boards
kshallow@windiescricket.com
corporate@windiescricket.com
Subject: A Fatal Deficit of Governance, Fiduciary Duty, and Commercial Acumen
Dear Dr. Shallow,
I am addressing you, as the duly elected leader of Cricket West Indies (CWI), alongside your 17-member Board of Directors. This open letter is an urgent, public demand for accountability regarding the ongoing and severe financial emergency crippling West Indies cricket.
The fundamental role of a corporate board is to safeguard an institution's long-term viability through rigorous financial planning and foresight. When executive management prepares 5- and 10-year plans, a competent board does not treat them as passive presentations. It is the board’s absolute duty to pressure-test those metrics against harsh realities. Had the CWI Board exercised basic fiduciary due diligence, the catastrophic revenue shortfalls we are seeing today would have been caught and mitigated years in advance.
Instead, regional stakeholders are witnessing an unprecedented collapse of business acumen:
- The Deceptive "Insolvency" Narrative: Assertions that CWI is "not insolvent" offer cold comfort to fans and players alike. When an organization aggressively slashes player compensation, pays basic salaries late, and relies on emergency bailouts to stay afloat, semantic deflections are useless. CWI is functionally broke.
- The ICC Dependency Trap: Relying on a $16 million USD emergency loan facility from the International Cricket Council (ICC) simply to maintain liquidity exposes severe structural frailty. Tying the hands of Caribbean cricket to mandatory external financial metrics proves that long-term fiscal sovereignty has been surrendered.
- Systemic Damage to the Cricket Pipeline: Destructive cost-cutting measures, including the cancellation of vital youth tournaments like the Under-17 regional championships and the contraction of domestic retainers from 12 months down to 7 are short-sighted solutions that actively dismantle the future of our game.
- Compromising and Alienating the Human Asset: Forcing a 25% pay cut onto internationally contracted players and failing to pay salaries on schedule is the fastest way to accelerate an exodus of world-class talent to global T20 franchise leagues.
Dr. Shallow, your administration cannot hide behind polished public relations or historical justifications. The current crisis is a direct consequence of board-level complacency and a failure to treat West Indies cricket as a sustainable, modern commercial platform.
We do not need further semantic assurances; we require an immediate, transparent overhaul of CWI's financial governance strategy. The regional game, our players, and millions of West Indian cricket lovers deserve a leadership structure that operates with true corporate competence.
Sincerely,
Sarge
