… LICB is the latest territorial board to have endorsed a Skerritt/Shallow return

By Rajiv Bisnauth

THE Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB), has been the latest territorial board to have publically endorsed the sitting president of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Ricky Skerritt and vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow for a second term when CWI’s virtual Annual General Meeting is held on March 28.
The LICB joined the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), and the Windward Islands Cricket Board (WICB), as the other two territorial boards to have signaled their support for a Skerritt/Shallow return for another term.

As it stands, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) has not yet formalised its decision for whom they will vote to be the next president of CWI, but First vice-president of JCA, Dr Donovan Bennett, told Chronicle Sport recently that while the JCA has not declared its position publicly since the board has not yet called a meeting to have a formal decision in place, he doesn’t see any reason why Jamaica would want to change its position from the people’s selection.

However, despite it seems a clear walk in the park for Skerritt and his running mate Shallow, presidential hopeful, Anand Sanasie said his chances are still great.
“I continue to talk to those I have been having discussion with before I put my name into the ring…I think my chances are still great, obviously there were some jitters after what was happening in Guyana…I think I can still win the presidency. However, the obvious disadvantages are there, given what has happened in Guyana, but I still think I can win the presidency because I have a good programme and manifesto to present to the people”, Sanasie said on Friday evening on the SportsMax Zone.

Sanasie, who is also a Director on CWI, further said “I have a running mate that is quite capable to go with me. I have been there for ten years at CWI, and one of the main things that cause me to enter the race is that after ten years you start to see the same mistakes over and over again, so I thought that this cycle of every two to three years going back to the same thing all over again, and if I can’t do something about it, I am really part of the problem”.
Sanasie’s running mate is Calvin Hodge from the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA).
Further, president of the LICB, Enoch Lewis, who is a former first-class cricketer, believes that Skerritt and the rest of his board are still best suited to run the affairs of regional cricket.

“We think that these guys exemplify the values that Leeward Islands cricket promotes and we are talking about demonstrating leadership skills, persons of high integrity and honesty. We are talking about transparent persons; we are talking about persons who believes in equal opportunity for everybody, including those persons whose physique are not acceptable to some persons,” he said.

The LICB has nominated Skerritt and Shallow for a second two-year term with the nomination seconded by the TTCB.
Lewis believes that a vote for anyone other than the incumbents would result in a backward move for the game in the region and on the international market.
“We have absolutely no choice because we don’t want to look back and we don’t want to take Cricket West Indies backwards by looking at an alternative team. We believe that we have a team with foresight that will take West Indies cricket forward, in Skerritt and Shallow, and we support that wholeheartedly, 100 per-cent,” he said.

Skerritt was elected president of CWI on March 24, 2019, replacing Dave Cameron. Skerritt beat Cameron, who was in the role for six years, by a vote of eight to four in the elections conducted through secret ballot. Shallow also defeated Cameron’s deputy, Emmanuel Nanthan, by the same margin to take over as vice-president.