THE three-member panel assembled by Cricket West Indies (CWI) to undertake a comprehensive review of the senior team's first round World Cup exit from the T20 World Cup last year has put forward 34 detailed recommendations to be implemented over the short, medium and long term.
The trio - Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court judge and committee chairman Justice Patrick Thompson Jr, West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara and South African coach Mickey Arthur - touched on a broad scope of findings in their report to the regional body.
Information was derived from dozens of interviews of players, coaches, administrators, directors and other stakeholders and other research.
In their executive summary, the report said the World Cup team was 'underprepared', unable to acclimatise to the cold conditions in Australia and hailed the absence of Guyanese batsman Shimron Hetmyer a 'significant loss'.
They found that CWI must develop and create clear pathways for the identification, development and management of talent, otherwise, WI cricket runs the risk of being strip-mined by other professional leagues that can afford to harvest and develop WI players, for their benefit.
The report entailed more recommendations than reflections on the team's performance since much emphasis was placed on the ways and means of grooming a bunch of 30-35 core players ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. That tournament will be played in the WI and USA.
Getting these players together, all at once, for a long period of time, to commit and train ahead of tournaments is integral to generating consistency moving forward.
Greater conversations between players and CWI, proper planning and communication between the two and coming to fair, agreeable conclusions were just some of the recommendations put forward, with detailed explanations and references.
The coming together of territorial boards to host more inter-island T20, and even red ball tournaments, outlined an array of short and long-term benefits for the future of WI cricket.
'Our players need to play as much cricket as possible. CWI must somehow accommodate a local T20 league to spot and allow talent to be spotted, a forum to display talent, a pipeline to identify prospects to develop,' said CWI president Ricky Skerritt during Thursday's virtual media interaction on the review.
The three-man team suggested that CWI convene a three-day in-person meeting/retreat with the core squad to determine their willingness and availability to participate in the 2024 World Cup. With the 2023 cricket calendar already confirmed, and some of 2024, players should be aware of their potential availability for the next 18 months.
Commitment to representing WI remains key for all stakeholders.
'It's practically impossible to get them all (players) at the same time for long periods but conversations are happening already. The Future tours programme is the ICC programme for bilateral cricket and it's much better suited now to
