Shallow’s dilemma

ON reflection, it is sad to recognise that president of Cricket West Indies Dr Kishore Shallow believes that he is invincible and that the administration of cricket cannot do without him. How could someone be such a failure as president of CWI and not recognise it? Or maybe I am missing something.

How can Shallow, who won a seat in the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines and took with him the idea that he can deal with the huge responsibility that he owes to his constituents as their elected parliamentarian, plus the obligation and accountability of his government’s business, not feel that he would be shortchanging CWI or his government?

At various times, he would find himself having to adjust schedules to suit one or the other. Naturally, the government’s business will always take precedence; hence, he would be shortchanging CWI, which is already a suffering entity. Therefore, that situation would not be fair to CWI with its vast responsibilities. Does Shallow really believe that he alone can successfully guide the cricket business of the West Indies? Doesn’t he realise that he ought to pass on the baton of cricket leadership, for, apart from all that has been written and done, he is a failure in that position?

How are the officials of any sporting enterprise judged? How is the president judged? The WI have not been doing well for quite a while. Can this be defended by excuses? How would he ever be able to justify his choice as president? He can’t! Therefore, after almost three years of being responsible for administering the affairs of WI cricket with absolutely no progress being made, change should take place.

The change for Shallow is the correct course to take, so that he ought to leave and allow someone else to run the activities of CWI and hope that the new incumbent would be able to be more successful. Shallow cannot make any difference between now and the end of his term.

There have been disastrous decisions made during his spell. For instance, the employment of Daren Sammy as a coach, removing Andre Coley as the coach for Test players, while he (Coley) was doing a good job in building players’ self-confidence, improving their attitudes through encouragement, inspiration and the will to win. After Coley coached the team to a single victory against Australia for the first time in 24 years in February 2024 and drawing the series, then beating Pakistan on a doctored turning wicket in Pakistan, to level a two-match series in February 2025, he was removed.

Making Sammy the lone selector of West Indies teams was the most colossal blunder of all. As a result of all these costly mistakes, the WI team went limping along from defeat to defeat. At that time, Shallow behaved as if nothing was wrong. He never seemed to understand that his purpose was to oversee and guide his officials, thus the teams they were all responsible for, to play good, competitive cricket and not be the laughing stock of the world’s cricket-playing fraternity.

His ignorance of the game, in addition to that of his advisers, led the WI team to the depths of despair, without these people even thinking of resigning. Nonetheless, allowing the disaster to continue spreading, until West Indian fans, citizens and supporters became more and more disenchanted with the game they had all loved, being aware that optimism was disappearing and the future was bleak.

No changes were made, or new tactics developed, in order to attempt brand new plans or fresh systems, so that improvement or development could take place and allow the cricket to advance. They just didn’t know what to do and instead of resigning their positions, having faced inadequacy head-on, they steadfastly stuck to their inept methods. Sadly, without any ideas of how to improve WI players, much to the detriment of cricket in the region, which faces oblivion.

At present, Shallow has the opportunity to bow out gracefully and allow someone else to take the stress of the position and be satisfied that he made an effort, although unsuccessful, to turn WI cricket around and be unselfish enough to give up the obligation and wish his successor the best of luck.

The shareholders in any business that’s failing consistently do not blame the underlings (read players) for not doing their jobs properly. It’s at the president of the company’s desk where the buck stops.