Cricket West Indies (CWI) Chief Executive Officer Chris Dehring has revealed that about 100 issues have been identified as contributors to the decline of West Indies cricket, with insufficient facilities, players’ skill deficiencies, and the quality of domestic competitions among the most pressing.
Dehring was speaking during a press conference on Monday following a high-level two-day emergency meeting convened by CWI President Dr Kishore Shallow. The meeting, which included current and former players, coaches, and officials, sought to chart a course for immediate reform of the regional game.
The emergency session brought together the Cricket Strategy & Officiating Committee, legendary former players such as Sir Clive Lloyd, Brian Lara, Sir Vivian Richards, Desmond Haynes, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ian Bradshaw, as well as current West Indies head coach Daren Sammy, white-ball captain Shai Hope, and Test captain Roston Chase. Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe also participated.
During the question-and-answer segment, Dehring was asked if any particular areas had been identified that needed urgent attention.
“Well, I think over the last two days we identified a list of maybe about 100 things that we have to improve,” Dehring replied. “But probably amongst the top five was facilities for the development of our cricketers. We’re talking about things like facilities at every level for the development of our cricketers, proper practice pitches across the region, the quality of our domestic tournaments would have been highlighted.”
The CEO explained that many of the problems are systemic, often only becoming glaring when regional players are exposed at the international level.
“There’s definitely a skills deficiency at various levels that really don’t get highlighted until they reach international level,” he said. “And then you see the glaring deficiencies vis a vis our international counterparts, which again is systemic, because it is very difficult as a batting coach to change habits when you’re getting somebody who has made so many runs at the regional level but clearly has deficiencies when it comes to the international level…. So we have to try and address the issues that we’re facing much earlier from a technical development perspective.”
Strength and conditioning also featured as a major concern, with Dehring stressing the need for improved facilities for emerging players.
“There are also issues surrounding strength and conditioning, which again point back to facilities that are available to our youngsters and our emerging players. So those will be some of the highlights which would have been pointed out,” he said.
Dehring said several suggestions had been put forward to address those problems.
Among the proposed solutions: the establishment of a fully functional High Performance Centre that can be replicated across the region, and a structured academy system designed to develop players in a distinct “West Indies way” from the Under-15 level onwards.
“….Academy systems to make sure that the West Indies way of playing cricket is both documented and taught from very early, so that you’re getting people who have been ingrained in the West Indies cricket way long before they reach international level, throughout Under-15s, Under-17s, Under-19s and so on,” Dehring explained. (CMC/BT)
