By Neto Baptiste
The President of the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB), Enoch Lewis, believes that siting president of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Ricky Skerritt and the rest of his board are still best suited to run the affairs of regional cricket.
His endorsement of Skerritt and CWI vice president Dr Kishore Shallow, comes just one month ahead of CWI’s virtual Annual General Meeting slated for March 28.
“We think that these guys exemplify the values that Leeward Islands cricket promotes and we are talking about demonstrating leadership skills, persons of high integrity and honesty. We are talking about transparent persons; we are talking about persons who believes in equal opportunity for everybody, including those persons whose physique are not acceptable to some persons,” he said.
The LICB has nominated Skerritt and Shallow for a second two-year term with the nomination seconded by the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB). Skerritt and Shallow are being challenged by CWI director Anand Sanansi from the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and Calvin Hodge from the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA).
Lewis believes that a vote for anyone other than the incumbents would result in a backward move for the game in the region and on the international market.
“We have absolutely no choice because we don’t want to look back and we don’t want to take Cricket West Indies backwards by looking at an alternative team. We believe that we have a team with foresight that will take West Indies cricket forward, in Skerritt and Shallow, and we support that wholeheartedly, 100 percent,” he said.
A former national batsman, Lewis reminded that had it not been for a change in leadership two years ago, players who are now dominating for the regional squad at the international level would not have been given the opportunity to represent under the former regime.
“Leeward Islands people in particular must understand that if we didn’t press — despite being tortured sometimes, being humiliated — that Rahkeem Cornwall would not be playing for West Indies today and we want a team that accepts that people are different and that people have diverse backgrounds. We don’t want you to discriminate against people because of their race, religion or because their body structure is different,” he said.
Skerritt was elected president of CWI on March 24, 2019, replacing Dave Cameron.
Skerritt beat Cameron, who was in the role for six years, by a vote of eight to four in the elections conducted through secret ballot. Shallow also defeated Cameron’s deputy Emmanuel Nanthan by the same margin to take over as vice-president.