West Indies cricket administrators and a host of former greats – Brian Lara, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Shivnarine Chanderpaul – gathered in Port-of-Spain this week for what was billed as an emergency strategy meeting. Head coach Daren Sammy and CWI chief executive Chris Dehring were also in the room. The trigger was blunt: 27 all out against Australia at Sabina Park, the second-lowest total in Test history.
The group has now produced a provisional roadmap. It is broad, a bit unwieldy and, by everyone’s admission, will take time. “Hope to see them come to fruition,” Lloyd said. “Sincerely hope this doesn’t come to some damp squib.”
Money is the first hurdle. Lloyd confirmed CWI intends to approach the ICC for “special dispensation” – extra funding in recognition of past contributions to the world game. Officials were careful not to call it a bailout, yet the financial gap between West Indies and the so-called Big Three is obvious.
Dehring put numbers on the wider challenge. “We have identified a list of about a hundred things that we have to improve, but probably among the top five: facilities at every level for our cricketers; practice pitches across the region; the quality of our domestic tournaments, there’s definitely a skills deficiency at various levels that don’t get highlighted till they reach international levels and then you see the glaring deficiencies vis-à-vis our international counterparts, which again is systemic,” he said.
He pointed to a knot familiar to regional coaches: players dominate first-class cricket, debut in Tests, and the technical cracks widen immediately. “As the batting coach [Jimmy Adams] pointed out, it’s very difficult to change habits when you are getting somebody who has made so many runs at regional level but clearly has deficiencies when it comes to international level. It’s very difficult to change in a couple of weeks. There are issues concerning strength and conditioning, which again points back to facilities which are available to youngsters and emerging players and ‘A’ teams, etc.”
One practical outcome – still to be costed – is a new high-performance hub. Dehring again: “a proper high-performance centre established in the region, a prototype that will then be modelled and imitated across the region, in other countries, [and] academy systems to ensure that the West Indies way of playing cricket is both documented and taught from very early”.
Lara, increasingly vocal behind the scenes, argued that the sport has moved on while the Caribbean system stalled. “It’s been that case for years, where we are not in the same level-playing field as other playing countries,” he said. “Back in the days when skill was the prominent factor, we excelled, we were the best team in the world. But the game has evolved, and technology and analytics, and we now have to see a new way of finding ourselves back to being very competitive.” He added, “I said not a level-playing field becaus”—the sentence trailed off, the point nonetheless clear.
Analysis
The Sabina Park collapse only underscored problems long discussed: sparse first-class schedules, uneven pitches, limited sports-science support and a talent drain to T20 leagues. The proposed academy and regional performance centre could address two of those issues – coaching consistency and conditioning – but both require sustained funding.
CWI’s hope for an ICC dispensation is, in effect, a plea to be treated as a strategic asset rather than a commercial rival. Whether that gains traction in a rights-driven landscape is another matter.
For now, the mood is equal parts resolve and realism. The plan will circulate through internal committees before any public timelines emerge. Caribbean supporters have heard similar pledges before, yet the presence of Lara, Lloyd and Richards gives this attempt a little more heft. Execution, not diagnosis, is where past initiatives have faltered; the next six to twelve months will show whether this roadmap is different.
