Editorial | CWI’s only choice is to disband

Thankfully for the West Indies cricket team and the overseers of the game in the region, the team’s latest humiliation of Caribbean people happened in the midst of the football World Cup. Few noticed. Or perhaps people do not care anymore. Leave them to their own devices.

But Ricky Skerritt, the president of Cricket West Indies (CWI) could not leave well alone. He fell back to the saccharine inanity that the team and administrators offer after every even more feckless performance. The point at every speckle and declare it to be the first fleck of a transformative light.

It is now hard to discern if they are genuine Pollyannas and wide-eyed participants in the massive con. Either way, West Indies cricket needs a massive dose of reality, and an even greater amount of overhaul and reform.

In the event that it was missed, on December 11, Australia completed a 419-run win before the dinner break on the final evening of their second Test (a day-night match), to complete a sweep of the series.

It was Australia’s biggest-ever victory over the West Indies by runs. And the Caribbean team’s second innings total of 77 was their second lowest against Australia. The Australians won the first Test by 164 runs.

“I was aware of the fact that we hadn’t won a Test match in Australia for the past 25 years,” Mr Skerritt told this newspaper in the aftermath of the series defeat. “So, I was hoping for a fighting performance, even if we lost.”

Reasonable!

“What I saw was a good fight, and an encouraging performance in the two warm-up games and the first Test match,” Mr Skerritt said, “I was disappointed with the fall-off in the performance in the second Test. However, there is no bigger Test match pressure than playing in Australia.”

Sop!

In the first Test, Australia made 598 for four declared (Marnus Labuschagne, 204; Steven Smith, 200 not out; Travis Head, 99) and 182 for two declared (Labuschagne, 104). The West Indies made 182 and 333. The captain, Kraigg Braithwaite, had scores of 64 and 110, while the Test newcomer, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, scored 51 and 45.

POINTLESS OPTIMISM

Mr Skerritt’s optimism about the first Test apparently rested on the performance of Braithwaite and Chanderpaul, and the fact that in their second innings they were 233 for seven, but the last three wickets added 100 runs. The offspinner, Roston Chase, made 55 and the fast bowler, Alzarri Joseph, 43.

Braithwaite and Chanderpaul apart, the specialist batsmen failed in both innings. In the second Test, only Chanderpaul (47, run out) and Anderson Phillip (43) made a reasonable score in the first innings.

If Mr Skerritt accepted any light he perceived for what it would have been, he would have sensibly concluded that what he was seeing was the continuing train wreck of West Indian batting. The bowling was largely inconsequential, except for a few spells by Joseph, especially one in the first Test against Labuschagne (502 in the series, with three centuries) when he bowled with real hostility.

The tone of Mr Skerritt’s assessment of the team’s performance is of unrealism, a grasp for hope where there is only vacuum. It is consistent with the old spiel. That language, and the uncomfortable truth that it attempts to mask, is now routine.

EMPTY PROMISES

Ricky Skerritt came to the helm of West Indies cricket promising to rescue the region’s game and restore it to its old glory. He is heading towards four years as CWI’s president. Not enough to affect transformation, but sufficient to at least talk about the game in a way that recognises its state of crisis.

This month’s Test series debacle followed the West Indies being humiliatingly turfed out of the T20 Cricket World Cup, after failing to make the cut in a preliminary contest among the sport’s minnows.

Mr Skerritt then blamed poor shot selection by the batters for the indignity the team heaped upon their supporters. He promised a “thorough post-mortem” of the tournament. His CEO suggested a comprehensive review of the game in the region. They did not say how, and have not said anything more.

We repeat our call for something more fundamental, the dissolution of Cricket West Indies and the implementation of the proposals in Professor Eudine Barriteau’s report for a broader stakeholder management and oversight of West Indies cricket. Piecemeal reforms will not do.

After the shame of the World Cup, Mr Skerritt declared that “West Indies cricket is bigger than any one individual or event, and continues to need the input and support of all stakeholders”.

Whatever message he intended in that remark, he can show that he fully appreciated the fullness of what was said. He should suggest to the owners of CWI that they urgently embrace Professor Barriteau’s recommendations.