Cricket West Indies (CWP) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chris Dehrings, using the analogy of the cricket team’s well-known pace bowling lineup, says the regional governing body has devised a four-pronged attack to address the financial doldrums it has found itself in for the 2025-26 period as a result of the International Cricket Council’s financial model.
The four-pronged attack falls within a 2024-2027 strategic plan, dubbed The Long Run which is a fast bowling term.
Dehring gave some details of the CWI’s four-pronged approach at a press conference last week Wednesday.
“… we’re not standing still during this period. From a re-engineering process, you know, the president spoke about the strategic plan of the long run. Well, in keeping then that fast bowling theme, we have a four-pronged attack that we are working on.
“First, the president mentioned the financial model at the ICC. We are continuing our lobbying efforts, and we’ve had encouraging discussions with the ICC that they are actually willing to listen and hear our views once more, presumably because also they’re hearing it from other test-playing countries as well.
“The second prong has got to be a re-engineering of cricket in the Caribbean, an entire re-imagining of how it is.
“Cricket West Indies is the only regional body, the only sport that literally pays for everything to do with all regional tournaments. The only sport. So when a team comes from Jamaica, comes from Barbados, comes from Guyana, Cricket West Indies pays for everything – the airlift, the hotels, all costs of the tournament, etc.
“That doesn’t happen in any other sport, where national teams are usually supported by their countries. So it’s a very unusual structure, and maybe back in the 1960s when it was one tournament, which is when it started with the Shell Shield, that was adequate.
“But now when you’re hosting 25 or 30 of these tournaments and events, it becomes much more unsustainable. We’re starting to feel the pinch of it, and so we need to have an entire re-imagining of how we do our domestic tournaments, how we spend our developmental funds, and so on. So there’s an entire re-engineering that has to take place there.
“The third prong is CARICOM, and we’ve had very fruitful discussions with CARICOM in terms of getting the CARICOM subcommittee much more active, engaged, and some of the challenges that we have, explaining those challenges and helping us to come up with those solutions. We’re not going to be able to do it alone. There’s no question about that, and we need the help of our governments to work with us, understanding the actual issues rather than what is perceived to be issues, actual issues, and work through those factors to see how we can re-engineer and get much more CARICOM government support in how we develop West Indies cricket to put us back on the world stage.
“The fourth prong is the corporate Caribbean, and getting more support from corporate Caribbean, not by largesse or gift or love of West Indies cricket. We understand that corporates want to make money, and they want to see a return on their investment,” Dehring told reporters.
The CWI CEO said they have already gone through a very financially challenging year and next year is going to be a very challenging year also.
“The cash reserves that we would have gained out of Cricket World Cup are gone. We now have to start again. But it’s nothing new. We go through this cycle every four years. So it’s nothing new.
And we’re very confident we’ll be able to come through on the other side and continue The Long Run Strategic Plan,” Dehring said.
