Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, Ricky Skerritt, believes his administration will need more time to turn around the dismal fortunes of Windies cricket and develop a successful model for the future.
Skerritt and his deputy Dr Kishore Shallow successfully defeated controversial former president, Dave Cameron, to claim regional cricket’s top positions in March of last year.

However, things have not gone as smoothly as they would have liked. Most importantly on the field of play, the team continues to suffer heavy defeats.

Earlier this month, the West Indies found themselves on the wrong side of two heavy innings defeats at the hands of New Zealand.
The non-competitive manner of the losses has sparked calls for change in some circles, perhaps going as far as the regional leadership team. Skerritt, however, insists that while he himself is at times embarrassed by a few of the results, the team’s performance issues were never likely to be a quick fix.

“The on-field performances will only get better if the organisation get’s better at what it does and that is where I’m confident we are making progress,”

Skerritt told television program Talking Sports.

“You will see the results of that, whether I am president or not, if we continue on the course that I have now put the organisation on, in another two to ten years, and I say that because a lot of things are variables…you will see a better product coming out of cricket West Indies, maybe as early as two years from now,”

he added.

Skerritt confirmed that he would be seeking a new mandate in 2021, when the next election will take place, as he hopes to continue laying the groundwork for his long-term development plans.

“For me to achieve any significant results, we have to continue what we have started. I believe that I need two more years to take us to that level where I can walk away from it and it continues. We have to build a sustainable culture. The culture that we have right now, although we are busy trying to change it, it can very well revert to the old culture, which will not be solution-oriented.”