PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Cricket West Indies president Dr. Kishore Shallow said the Caricom conference on the sport in the Caribbean could serve as a platform for “acknowledging deficiencies and initiating change.”
The conference, jointly hosted by the T&T government and Caricom, opened on Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, the T&T capital.
Shallow said West Indies cricket has a deep-rooted cultural and historical significance, highlighting its role as a unifying force and source of regional pride—but he acknowledged issues affecting the sport in the Caribbean.
“Despite its past dominance, West Indies cricket struggles to maintain its global status, facing issues of insularity and nationalistic behaviors,” he said during his opening address to the conference.
“In fact, to the average fan, indeed the younger generation, our reality may even be perplexing. They may wonder, what are we talking about? What great institution? If you’re only tuning in to West Indies cricket.
“Quite often, I hear the question, how can an institution that held such dominance once upon a time be so vulnerable now? And why have we dominated every single format of the game at some point, yet there are still struggles for us to be in the top five of the world ranking?”
Shallow said it was essential that all concerned accept and acknowledge the deficiencies and challenges to West Indies cricket documented in various texts to begin resolving them.
He added that though individual brilliance may be notable, sustained success required collective effort and understanding of roles within the team.
“So to proceed with fixing or resolving our issues and challenges, we have to accept the deficiencies,” he said. “Those diagnoses over the years in countless texts that are so well documented and available to us, we must accept what we need to fix.
“And I believe this symposium is a starting point for accepting the challenges that we face, our shortfalls over the years, and the countless suggestions made to us, including former heads of governments but certainly cricket administrators, that these suggestions that have fallen deaf over the years must now be accepted.”
Entitled “Reinvigorating West Indies Cricket—A Symposium for Strategic Collaboration and Innovation,” the conference will discuss topics such as the strategic direction of West Indies cricket, cricket’s development, and cricket and tourism.
Several Caricom leaders, including host prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley, and Guyana president Dr Irfaan Ali, are attending the conference, as well as cricket icons such as Sir Wes Hall, Sir Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards, and Sir Charlie Griffith.
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