Cricket West Indies boss Ricky Skerritt is hitting back at critics who have said he is going back on a pledge to hire local coaches to help get West Indies back to winning ways.

Since beating Dave Cameron to the top post last year, Skerritt, who had said during his campaign that foreign coaches do not have the connection to the players that local ones do and that his administration would be providing opportunities for coaches from the region to contribute to team building, has hired three overseas coaches.

Skerritt’s administration has overseen the hiring of Coaching Education Manager, Chris Brabazon from Australia, Batting Coach Monty Desai from India, and Fielding Coach Trevor Penney from Zimbabwe.

But according to Skerritt, his administration has been forced to look overseas because of the paucity of expertise in the region and that his campaign did not mean he would not hire any coaches internationally.

“There is no reverse at all. First thing is that I didn’t say we would hire West Indian coaches only. I said we would adopt a West Indian-first policy, whereby, we would look at the individuals we have in the region, and if we cannot find the respective talent to fill those roles, then we would have to go overseas to do so,” said Skerritt in an interview with Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner.

According to Skerritt, not having the requisite expertise at the moment did not mean the Caribbean would never have these types of persons because one of the jobs of each of the persons contracted, is to coach the coaches in the region.

“These coaches have been hired with a contractual obligation to share their best practices, and this is a policy with which we are moving forward so that we can develop our local coaches. In a week’s time, Jimmy Adams and head coach Phil Simmons, as well as our CEO, Johnny Grave, will meet to further the discussion on coaching as we look to develop our game soon,” said Skerritt.