THE T&T Cricket Board (TTCB) will once again be supporting the incumbent Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Rickey Skerritt and vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow when the annual general meeting (AGM) and elections of officers take place on March 28.

Skerritt, 62, and 35-year-old Dr Shallow, the current president of St Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association, are being nominated by the Leeward Islands Cricket Board and seconded by the TTCB.

Last Wednesday, veteran CWI director Anand Sanasie announced his candidacy for the position of president saying that the time is right for new ‘visionary leadership’.

However, he is yet to announce who has nominated him and who has seconded his nomination. His running mate for vice president is Calvin Hope, the vice president of the Barbados Cricket Board (BCB), who is also a CWI Director and like Sanasie, no announcement of nomination confirmation was provided.
However, the national executive of the TTCB met via Zoom last Friday and Guardian Media Sports was reliably informed that the main topic on the agenda was the nomination of the candidates for the positions of president and vice president of CWI.

And, after close to two hours of discussion during the meeting chaired by president Azim Bassarrath, the meeting unanimously agreed to endorse the nominations of Skerritt and Dr Shallow for another two-year term at the helm of CWI.

Guardian Media was told from a meeting insider that the discussions centred around how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had affected cricket activities in the Caribbean and throughout the world since March 2020 and that it would be unfair to judge the performance of the CWI leadership in the context of an abbreviated term of office.

Also, the TTCB believed that notwithstanding the negative impact on cricket over the past year, several initiatives initiated by Skerritt and Dr Shallow as enunciated in their manifesto gained valuable traction but needed more time to produce the desired results.

The meeting pointed to what has been described as the “Robust 10-point Cricket First” plan which is designed to gain global competitiveness and focuses on the development of the skill and character of a new generation of cricketers. And that Skeritt and Dr Shallow have placed great emphasis on science, technology and innovation, and despite the interruption of their programme by the COVID-19 pandemic, tangible results have already been produced in a meaningful way.
The executive believes that the CWI under both officers had also made headway in addressing the concerns raised about the governance of regional cricket and the Wehby Report which is seen as a work in progress and which can form the basis of what is required to positively impact regional cricket.

The TTCB also felt that no positive outcome can be accomplished with a change in CWI leadership presently, after a shortened tenure at this time and that the two candidates must be allowed another term to advance their goals. The local cricket officials were also unimpressed with the limited information available at the time of its meeting on the plans and objectives of the candidates who will be opposing Skerritt and Dr Shallow.

Therefore, the TTCB called for unity among the territorial boards in the face of the latest challenge being faced and is confident that with the resumption of cricket, much more will be done to elevate the status of West Indies cricket at home and abroad under the leadership of Skerritt and Dr Shallow. (TT Guardian)