Skerritt: Solid structure will help WI performances

CRICKET West Indies (CWI) president Ricky Skerritt said the creation of the West Indies First Policy will help develop a solid organisational structure which will in turn improve the performances of the West Indies teams on the field.

Skerritt was speaking at the 20th Annual Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture, on Monday night. The event, held online, was hosted by The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus through its Faculty of Sport, in partnership with CIBC First Caribbean International Bank.

Skerritt is confident in the policy’s ability to revamp how CWI operates.

“The West Indians First policy is therefore a timely call to action, designed to help change an organisational culture, through the empowerment of West Indian talent and production. Its main outputs must be an empowerment that impacts all players, staff and executives. It leads to the best available creativity, effectiveness, and performance excellence both on and off the field.”

Skerritt unveiled the policy shortly after being voted in as CWI president in March, 2019.

A solid structure off the field will lead to winning teams in West Indies cricket. “The policy also emphasises that organisational excellence off the field of play, is the prerequisite for achieving consistent world-class on-field performances,” Skerritt said.

The West Indies policy is centred towards empowering the talent of West Indies personnel.

“At the core of this West Indians First policy is the development and optimum utilisation of expert skill and knowledge, of Caribbean origin where ever and whenever possible,” the policy says.

“Along with developing the best possible young cricketers, the other main output of this policy must be to generate and support the best quality coaching, umpiring, sports medicine, administration, and other cricket-related expertise, of our region.”

The policy is not intended to ignore qualified people from around the world, but it “does include an employment recruitment quota standard of a minimum of three out of every five members of the entire coaching and professional team support staff, and not less than 80 per cent of the total CWI full-time workforce should be of West Indian heritage.”

CWI plans to hire within the region first. “This West Indians First policy enables CWI to employ the best international expertise, but only where there is none of equal quality available of West Indian origin.”

Skerritt is calling on the employees of CWI to follow the policy.

“This very recent West Indians First policy will only be effective if it is properly and consistently implemented.

The CWI executive management must therefore take ownership of this call to action, while CWI board takes responsibility for its utilisation as a critically important policy. It is a necessary and timely policy which should make a major difference to the quality of the future output of West Indies cricket.”