Time for CWI bosses, woeful players to go

THE EDITOR: It’s now time for the Cricket West Indies (CWI) bosses and the current crop of woeful Windies cricketers to go!

In a right-thinking organisation, this can be the only result of the WI men’s T20 International cricket team being soundly beaten and dumped out of the ongoing World Cup in Australia, before making it to the group stage, by Ireland on Friday.

Nobody, not the players, not the administrators of the CWI, can be allowed to pass the buck or shift the goalposts, as they are very good at, after this latest debacle and inglorious performance by the “embarrassment in maroon,” who somehow managed to lose by nine wickets to the smiling Irish.

The only question that can now be asked is how quickly the Caribbean cricket stakeholders get rid of CWI president Ricky Skerritt, vice president Kishore Swallow, director of cricket Jimmy Adams and team manager Phil Simmons, among many others.

The cricket boards of the region simply cannot wait until the WI is reduced to being an associate team to take such action. As far-fetched as this may seem, it must be noted that the WI is now the bobolees of international cricket after being completely outclassed at the World Cup by newcomers to the gentleman’s game Scotland and Ireland in the qualifying stages of the tournament.

If we, the Caribbean people, do not stop the rot now the worst is clearly yet to come. Simmons must no longer be allowed to pass the blame to his players but must be made to take full responsibility for the agony on the cricket field that regional fans were forced to endure due to his obvious failure to teach them the basics of how to bowl and bat.

Somebody from the CWI must also explain how WI captain Nicholas Pooran, speaking as the players’ representative, could recently say that the regional team did not need big-name players to win the World Cup.

Could it be that somehow after 30 years of rampant failure the leadership of CWI believes it can put anybody in maroon and they must be able to beat the world’s best cricket teams, hence there was no room for Sunil Narine, Carlos Braithwaite, Shimron Hetmyer and other big-game match winners for the West Indies?

If this terrible state of affairs continues we would not have seen the bottom of the abyss, the deepest depths of which Skerritt’s men are seeking out, after the Caribbean’s finest have ended up at the bottom of a qualifying group for the World Cup that also included Zimbabwe, Scotland and Ireland. If it is not now time to say “bye-bye, Ricky, bye-bye,” then when will it be?

FITZROY OTHELLO

Princes Town