Bascombe replaces Adams as CWI director of cricket

Miles Bascombe is the new Cricket West Indies director of cricket.

The decision was made at a board of directors meeting on Friday at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua.

Bascombe, who signed a three-year contract, will take over from Jimmy Adams who held the position for the past six years. Adams’s contract expired on Friday.

CWI high performance manager Graeme West will act as the interim director of cricket until Bascombe takes up his new role on August 1.

Bascombe has been one of many new appointments this year. Dr Kishore Shallow, who previously held the position of CWI vice-president replaced Ricky Skerritt as the president of CWI. President of the TT Cricket Board Azim Bassarath took over from Dr Shallow.

Later on in the year, CWI appointed former West Indies captain Daren Sammy as the new white-ball coach (T20/50-over) and Andre Coley was named West Indies Test team coach.

In women’s cricket, Courtney Walsh was removed as head coach of the WI team and Jamaican Robert Samuels was recently named as interim head coach.

Bascombe, 37, played one T20 International for the West Indies in 2011 and played first-class cricket between 2007 and 2017, for both the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.

He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies with both Bachelor's and Master’s degrees and is a certified coach.

Speaking about his new role, Bascombe told CWI media, “West Indies Cricket is at a critical stage with an urgent need to improve performances. We have made significant progress with establishing a central High-Performance system that now needs to be rolled out across all of our Territories.

"I am looking forward to working as a member of the CWI senior leadership team and closely with the Territorial Boards to bring about the necessary improvements that I am confident will lead to more success by implementing a robust system based on achieving world-class standards and by driving a winning culture.”

The CWI media release said Bascombe has been successful at the Windward Islands Cricket Board.

“Bascombe, who was a CWI men’s selector between 2019 and 2021, has been the technical director at the Windward Islands Cricket Board over the last two years. Under his technical leadership, there has been a remarkable turnaround of fortunes for both male and female cricket across different levels, including an unbeaten first-class season in 2023.”

CWI CEO Johnny Grave said Bascombe was the right man for the job. “Following a thorough recruitment process, Miles stood out to the panel with his skills, experience and intimate knowledge of our cricket system, especially at territorial board level. His passion and understanding of the game at all levels are outstanding. He is a critical thinker with a strong analytical and strategic mindset, which will be hugely beneficial to us as we embark on formulating our new 4-year strategic plan.”