Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 01/Oct 06:43

Dr Rowley: Time to hit reset on Windies cricket

Former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, who also served as the chairman of Caricom’s Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on cricket from 2023-2025, has called for an overhaul in the regional game and for the West Indies to hit the reset button in the wake of their T20 series loss to Nepal in the United Arab Emirates. On September 27, a largely experimental West Indies team, which was led by first-time captain Akeal Hosein, lost to the Nepalese by 19 runs in the first of three T20s. The result was historic for Nepal as it was the International Cricket Council (ICC) associate nation’s first T20 win over an ICC full member. Two days later, Nepal were in dreamland when they bundled out the West Indies for just 83 in the second T20 to win by a whopping 90 runs and clinch the series. In the third and final T20, the Windies, who gave debuts to as many as six players on this tour because of the unavailability of several first-team players, salvaged a consolation victory when they got an emphatic ten-wicket win on September 30 on the back of a four-wicket haul from Ramon Simmonds and an unbeaten fifty from Amir Jangoo. Before that consolation victory, though, the former TT prime minister launched a scathing attack on the Windies team and the cricketing eco-system in the region via a passionate Facebook post on September 30. “This is (sic) me in July when we managed 27 against Australia. Now, this 83-run capitulation to Nepal has me fearful, angry and sad,” Rowley said. “My fear is that someone in Cricket West Indies (CWI) will try to rationalise this and find “positives!” In the third match of their three-match Test series against the Aussies at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica in July, a Roston Chase-led Windies team fell to what seemed to be a new low when they were skittled out for 27 in the second innings of a day/night pink-ball Test to forget. The total was the second-lowest in Test cricket history and saw the Windies crashing to a 176-run loss as they were handed a 3-0 series defeat. As a result of the devastating loss to Australia, CWI president Dr Kishore Shallow convened an emergency meeting from August 10-11 at the Hyatt Regency in Trinidad. The emergency meeting featured Windies legends such as Sir Clive Lloyd and Brian Lara and also saw input from CWI CEO Chris Dehring and director of cricket Miles Bascombe. The meeting in August came just 16 months after another mega consultation at the Hyatt when the Reinvigorating West Indies Cricket – A Symposium for Strategic Collaboration and Innovation was held in April 2024 to again discuss and try to address the slide in West Indies cricket. For Rowley, this series loss to Nepal is now the straw that has broken the camel’s back. He said it’s time to put a stop to the “one coach, one selector experiment.” At present, coach Daren Sammy is functioning as the coach of the Test team, along with the One-day International (ODI) and T20 teams. “Clearly, it has failed spectacularly,” Rowley said. “It must end now. We must return to an accountable development model which is based on performance, improvement and progress. This result is a gut punch for West Indies cricket and must be responded to with widespread house cleaning and reset. Waiting for a miracle from constant failure just will not deliver any satisfactory results. “I’m devastated at this situation. No scalpel will suffice here. A comprehensive reset is called for and minimum performance levels must be established and maintained. Patience (must be observed) yes, but patience without progress is a giant waste of time.” The former head of the region’s Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on cricket said it’s time to call in the cavalry. “Call in a small team of successful people and give them a role and some authority in Cricket West Indies. Call in Lloyd, Lara, (Andy) Roberts, (Michael) Holding and (Curtly) Ambrose to begin with and start a fishing programme with a purpose. “You need to talk to Caribbean people otherwise, they will reject and eject eventually.” At the conclusion of the two-day emergency meeting in August, one of the preliminary solutions which were identified included the need for a high-performance centre equipped with the latest professional training facilities to instill West Indies’ philosophy from the earliest possible stage. In Antigua on October 1, CWI will host a media briefing to reveal several key decisions coming out of a recently held Board of Directors meeting. Shallow, Dehring and Bascombe are all expected to make contributions at the session. The Windies are currently ranked eighth in Tests, ninth in ODIs and sixth in the T20 format. While an understrength Windies team played Nepal in three T20s, a full-strength Test team captained by Chase will play India in a two-match series from October 2-14. The post Dr Rowley: Time to hit reset on Windies cricket appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.