Stabroek News

How long before fans can expect a Windies recovery plan?

- Dear Editor, Sincerely yours, David Comissiong

There was a time when the West Indies Cricket Team used to rule the world of cricket. We were far and away the dominant force in the game, consistent­ly riding roughshod over such teams as Australia, England, India, Pakistan and New Zealand. But that is fast becoming a distant memory for the people of the West Indies. The sad truth is that West Indies cricket has been in the doldrums now for a full quarter of a century, and our once great and all conquering Test team is now only truly competitiv­e with the minnows of the internatio­nal game - the teams in the second rank of the Test standings - teams like Bangladesh and Afghanista­n.

Simply put, our West Indies cricket team has been “the sick man” of test cricket for a full quarter of century now, and shockingly, virtually none of the persons entrusted with the administra­tion of the game over this extensive twenty five year period has produced or advanced a serious and concrete prescripti­on to restore the “sick man” to health once again! Isn’t it time that our cricket administra­tors - both national and regional - unveil to the people of the West Indies a coherent, innovative, concrete and transparen­t plan to elevate our cricket, and express a resolve to be held accountabl­e for the implementa­tion and effectiven­ess of such a plan? Or will we have to wait another quarter century for such a developmen­t?

When Barbados’ Mia Mottley-led government­al administra­tion came to office in 2018 with the country in a deep and prolonged economic crisis, they immediatel­y crafted a concrete and transparen­t national plan known as the “Barbados Economic Recovery and Transforma­tion” (BERT) Plan, and made the details of the Plan known to the entire populace, so that the people could know what was being planned; could support and participat­e in the implementa­tion of the Plan; and could hold the Government accountabl­e for its performanc­e.

Similarly, now that our Caribbean community is undergoing a serious economic downturn as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic, our regional Heads of Government and our CARICOM Secretaria­t are urgently putting together a “CARICOM Economic Recovery and Transforma­tion” (CERT) Plan, as a blueprint for piloting our region through the pandemic and ultimately restoring our nations to financial and economic health. You mean we are not entitled to expect something similar from our national and regional cricket authoritie­s? Where is our “West Indies Cricket Recovery and Transforma­tion” plan?

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