CWI president says growth still possible in the face of challenges

(CMC):

Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt said the game in the Caribbean is "facing great challenges", but there were opportunities for improvement and growth.

Skerritt said success for the West Indies over the next two to 10 years was rooted in the commitment to the "cricket first" philosophy and "West Indian first" policy that he brought to the table following his election to the post of president.

"Great things can be achieved when the West Indian cricket community strives to think big and think differently, to collaborate and innovate together, and to put insularity and petty cricket politics to bed," he said.

"Cricket still has a golden chance to drive transformative growth and secure its sustainable long-term future in our West Indian culture for several more decades to come.

"West Indians are a resilient people. Sir Frank Worrell showed us how to face up to adversity, and in honour of his memory, let us pledge to continue to rally around the West Indies."

Improved On-field Results

Skerritt was delivering the 20th annual Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture, which was virtually hosted by the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies through its Faculty of Sport. He was addressing the topic 'Reforming Cricket West Indies for Improved On-field Results'.

Skerritt said the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted CWI significantly, but the governing body was committed to forging ahead with plans to move the game forward in the Caribbean.

"(The pandemic) has disrupted regional and international schedules and introduced significant biosecurity costs and dramatically changed markets for sponsorship and broadcast rights, reduced facilities access, and caused development funding cuts, no gate receipts, and numerous job losses," he said.

"The truth is that for the past eight months, COVID-19 has significantly slowed our forward reform momentum on both the cricket operations and financial revenue fronts."

He added: "Fortunately, before the advent of COVID-19, we had already begun important and urgent off-field reforms that will ultimately fulfil the essentials of the 'Cricket First' philosophy.

"While it is clear that the financial and other challenges of COVID-19 will not go away quickly, we cannot stop moving forward."