This Sunday, March 28 is set for Cricket West Indies (CWI) to hold its 22nd Annual General Meeting in respect of the financial year ended September 30, 2020.

Due to the continuing travel-related effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting will again take place virtually via video conference, as was done in a COVID-19 delayed meeting last year.

It is also the day when incumbent CWI President Ricky Skerritt and Vice President Dr. Kishore Shallow, will face challenges from Anand Sanasie of the Guyana Cricket Board and Calvin Hope of the Barbados Cricket Association, respectively, for the leadership of the organization over the next two-year term.

“All arrangements are in place for a productive Annual General Meeting,” President Skerritt said.

“This is not the first time that CWI is hosting a virtual AGM but it will be the first time that our leadership elections will take place virtually. We have everything in place to ensure a constructive and proper meeting.”

Shareholder members are slated to receive reports from the Cricket, Commercial and Finance Committees and for the first time, audited financial statements which will be consolidated to reflect CWI’s acquisition of and interest in the Coolidge Cricket Ground.

A copy of the 2019/20 audited financial statements and the Annual Report will be made available to all stakeholders via CWI’s website - http://www.windiescricket.com – from Monday, March 29.

 Cricket West Indies (CWI) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announced an expanded match schedule for England’s tour of the Caribbean in 2022.

The January 2022 Tour will now feature five T20 Internationals (T20Is) – increased from three matches – to be followed by England returning to the Caribbean for three Test matches in March – increased from the original two Test matches.

The Test series will be the first in which the two teams compete for the newly commissioned Richards-Botham Trophy, named in honour of West Indies’ batting icon Sir Vivian Richards and England’s great all-rounder Lord Ian Botham.

The T20I series will be the biggest series to date between the two teams in the shortest form of the game and will be part of the preparations building up to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in October 2022.

“This expansion of next year’s England tour to the Caribbean is welcomed news for West Indies Cricket and for the region’s tourism economy. It has come about because of the special relationship that has been developed between our respective boards and we are looking forward to working with ECB Chair Ian Watmore, and CEO Tom Harrison, to expand our partnership even further into new areas of cooperation and support,” said CWI President Ricky Skerritt.

“We have already begun discussions on how the ECB can help us in our development programs and I am pleased that ECB has been showing so much appetite and goodwill to assist.”

Johnny Grave CWI CEO expressed his pleasure at the development.

“We are delighted that the ECB has agreed to increase the number of matches in their tour to the Caribbean next year,” he said.

“An England tour to the West Indies is a special event, so adding a third Test match and two T20Is to the original schedule it will enable more fans to watch the teams do battle and afford more of our countries the opportunity to host matches.”

Meanwhile, Ian Watmore, Chair, England and Wales Cricket Board said discussions between the two boards had been ongoing since the West Indies toured the UK in the summer of 2020.

"We hugely appreciated the support of Cricket West Indies, and all its men’s and women’s players, in helping us host a full season of international cricket in the summer of 2020. Following the conclusion of those tours to England we have been in discussions with CWI to understand how we can best support them moving forward and one way was to extend our existing England men’s tours to the Caribbean in 2022,” Watmore said.

Tom Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, England and Wales Cricket Board said they were thrilled to be able to expand the number of games for the respective formats.

"A tour to the Caribbean is one of the most iconic for both England players and fans alike. So, we are delighted to confirm that our England men’s team will play two additional IT20s and one more Test Match as part of their planned tours in January and March respectively,” Harrison said.

“The three Test-match series will form part of the next ICC World Test Championship, whilst the additional IT20s will provide our England men’s team with valuable preparation ahead of the ICC World T20, which takes place in Australia later that year."

The venues for the matches are expected to be announced by the end of April.

Proposed Match Schedule

Friday, January 28: 1st T20 International

Sunday, January 30: 2nd T20 International

Wednesday, February 2: 3rd T20 International

Friday, February 4: 4th T20 International

Saturday, February 5: 5th T20 International

Tuesday, March 1 to Friday, March 4: warm-up match

Tuesday, Mar 8 to Saturday, March 12: 1st Test Match

Wednesday, March 16 to Saturday, March 20: 2nd Test Match

Thursday, March 24 to Monday, March 28: 3rd Test Match

Cricket West Indies (CWI) incumbent, Ricky Skerritt, has dismissed threats from presidential candidate Anand Sanasie as part of a ‘hopeful’ strategy designed to disqualify him from seeking re-election.

Earlier this week, Sanasie admitted to beginning procedures to bring Skerritt before the CWI Ethics Committee.  If the complaint is ignored at the regional level, the Guyana Cricket Board Secretary has not ruled out instructing his attorneys to bring the matter before the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Sanasie has accused Skerritt of improper conduct after alleging that a meeting between the latter, other board members of CWI, and Guyana Minister of Sports Charles Ramson Jr was not only illegitimately convened but that the decisions stemming from it, namely a quickly convened Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) election, were specifically designed to keep him off the ballot.  Ramson Jr has flatly rejected the assertions.

In response, Skerritt painted Sanasie’s actions as more of a desperate ploy than anything else.

“He is creating an illusion that somehow I will be disqualified from the election,” Skerritt told Sports Grill.

“It is his dream and his hope that I will be disqualified from the election because it is the only chance they would ever have of winning,” he added.

The CWI presidential elections are set to take place this Sunday.

Cricket West Indies President Ricky Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow have officially launched their bid to lead for a second term with promises to build on their first term of their leadership of regional cricket.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Ricky Skerritt, has congratulated the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force on their outstanding performance in winning the CG Insurance Super50 Cup at the Coolidge Cricket Ground.

The Red Force romped to victory in last Saturday’s final by 152 runs over the Guyana Jaguars. They were the only unbeaten team in the competition winning all seven matches giving skipper Kieron Pollard the honour of lifting the CG Insurance Super50 Sir Clive Lloyd Trophy.

In the wake of the impressive showing, CWI President Ricky Skerritt sent congratulatory messages to the team and the president of the TTCB President Azim Bassarath.

“This was a remarkable show of force by Trinidad from start to finish,” Skerritt said.

“It was a total team effort and Red Force found a match-winner at every stage. The other five franchise teams, including losing finalist Guyana Jaguars, all worked hard and showed good fighting qualities to varying degrees. But The Red Force was more dominant and consistent than ever, and simply unstoppable.” 

The CWI president in a direct message to the TTCB boss said: “Congrats on a great tournament and final victory for TTCB and your team. This incredible performance should emphasize the vital importance of planning and preparation. I hope it has also reminded us why cricket administrators should not simply throw away senior players while these players still have such good value to their team and country. Successful cricket teams employ a healthy balance of youth and experience, just like your team did in winning this tournament.”

President Skerritt also thanked the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, local health and medical officials, the tournament officials and operators from the Antigua & Barbuda Cricket Association, The Leeward Islands Cricket Board, and CWI and tournament sponsor CG Insurance who worked diligently to make the CG InsuranceSuper50 event such a huge success.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has announced the signing of another major long-term broadcast rights agreement, this time with Sky New Zealand for the exclusive live coverage to all West Indies home matches played in the Caribbean.

The agreement covering both television and digital rights will mean that Sky New Zealand including its Sky Go mobile app and Sky Sport Now streaming app will offer live coverage and highlights of televised West Indies regional tournaments including the current and future editions of the CG Insurance Super50 Cup.

The agreement will feature next month’s visit of Sri Lanka for three CG Insurance T20Is, three CG Insurance ODIs and two Test matches. Later this year West Indies is expected to host South Africa, Australia and Pakistan. The postponed 2020 white ball series against New Zealand is likely to be rescheduled into 2022.

“CWI is pleased to announce that we will be doing business with another leading sports broadcaster, Sky New Zealand,” said CWI President Ricky Skerritt.

“We are continuing to ensure an expanding worldwide coverage of the exciting West Indies brand of international and regional cricket.”

Johnny Grave, CEO of CWI, welcomed the new agreement.

“This landmark long-term agreement with Sky New Zealand will ensure West Indies matches and New Zealand tours of the West Indies can be watched live on TV and mobile devices. This partnership delivers on our strategy to deliver the best of West Indies cricket to fans all over the world,” he said.

Sophie Moloney, CEO Sky New Zealand said fans love to see the West Indies play.

“The West Indies have always delivered some of the most exciting and explosive cricket, appreciated by fans around the world. New Zealand cricket lovers are no exception, and we look forward to continuing our fantastic relationship on behalf of our customers,” she said.

This is CWI’s fourth new broadcast rights agreement announced in recent weeks, following announcements with ESPN+ for the United States; BT Sport for the United Kingdom and Ireland; and SuperSport for sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya.

 Cricket West Indies (CWI) today confirmed its third new multi-year broadcast rights agreement with SuperSport securing the rights to West Indies cricket until the end of 2024 in sub-Saharan Africa.

The four-year agreement will see SuperSport feature exclusive live coverage of all West Indies international home matches and regional tournaments played in the Caribbean on its television and digital platforms.

As part of the agreement, West Indies cricket will now be seen in over 54 African countries and islands, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya. SuperSport’s coverage starts with the recently confirmed West Indies versus Sri Lanka series which commences on Wednesday, March 3 with three CG Insurance T20 International matches.

The agreement also includes the rescheduled visit by South Africa to the Caribbean in June 2021, a tour that had to be rescheduled from July 2020 due to COVID-19.

“This new long-term SuperSport agreement ensures that the much-loved West Indies teams will be accessible to an expanded number of African consumer markets with sub-Saharan Africa’s premier broadcaster,” said CWI President Ricky Skerritt.

“As CWI’s third major media rights agreement finalized in the past few weeks, we are excited that SuperSport will be featuring every international series and regional tournament from the Caribbean, including the upcoming Sri Lanka Series and the rescheduled tour of the West Indies by South Africa in June.”

 Johnny Grave, CWI CEO said the agreement is another step of taking West Indies crickets into new markets.

 “We are absolutely delighted to confirm this significant four-year agreement with SuperSport to ensure that millions of cricket fans in Sub-Saharan Africa can follow West Indies Cricket in the Caribbean,” Grave said.

“By partnering with Africa’s leading sports broadcaster, CWI continues to deliver against our strategic objective of increasing the worldwide audience for and access to one of the world’s most loved cricket teams and regions.”

 This is the third major broadcast agreement announced by CWI following the recent ground-breaking agreements with ESPN+ for the United States market and with BT Sport for the United Kingdom and Ireland markets.​

Lawyers for Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Secretary Anand Sanasie have written strong objections to the decision of Guyana Culture, Youth, and Sports Minister Charles Ramson Jr to appoint Attorney Kamal Ramkarran as cricket Ombudsman.

In two letters, one to Ramson and the other to Ramkarran, the attorney’s pointed out that they deemed the appointment, made in accordance with Section 17 of the Guyana Cricket Administration Act, Chapter 21:03, Laws of Guyana, to be illegal, based on the fact that it was carried out more than once.

In addition to vehemently disputing Ramson’s claims that the Cricket West Indies (CWI) board was consulted, the letters pointed out that a 7-day period for holding the proposed elections was unreasonable.

“This is the third such appointment to be made by a Minister of Sport. The first person appointed under that section was Professor Winston McGowan. He served in the office for some time and then resigned. The Minister is only once required to exercise his power to appoint a Cricket Ombudsman. The Minister claims to have “just” consulted with CWI in his Notice appointing you as Cricket Ombudsman, which was published on the 19th February 2021,” the document read.

“We are instructed that the Minister did not meaningfully or at all consult with CWI. There has been no meeting with CWI convened for this purpose. Our client is aware that the Minister shares a close relationship with the current President of CWI and supports his re-election as President of CWI in elections slated for March 2021. Our client is his challenger for the post of President at the upcoming CWI elections.”

Should Sanasie be defeated in the election, he would be ineligible to challenge Skerritt for the post of CWI president.

“The consultation which was critical to the validity of your appointment was improper for the foregoing reasons and was motivated by an improper purpose and was taken in furtherance of the interest of the current President, Mr. Ricky Skerritt who did not raise the issue of the Cricket Ombudsman of Guyana with the Board as is required by the Cricket Administration Act.

Meaningful consultation could not in the circumstances take place by a phone call between the Minister and a single member of the Board of CWI. Your appointment is, therefore, illegal and we call upon you to decline the appointment and/or resign. The Minister has fixed a time frame of less than seven (7) days with which you are to fulfil your obligations of the establishment and verification of a Register of Clubs.”

The attorneys have demanded Ramkarran resign from the post or legal proceedings would begin to quash the appointment.

The Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board are throwing their support for the current leadership of Cricket West Indies in the lead up to the virtual Annual General Meeting set for March 28.

Secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board Anand Sanasie has confirmed to Sportsmax.TV that he will challenge incumbent Ricky Skerritt for the presidency of Cricket West Indies at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) set for March 29.

“I can confirm that I have been nominated by two full members,” Sanasie told Sportsmax.TV today. he declined to elaborate saying he will be issuing a formal statement on his intentions between tonight and Thursday morning.

Sanasie's confirmation came after cricket commentator and talk show host Andrew Mason reported that Sanasie, the long-serving secretary of the Guyana Cricket Board will challenge Skerritt for the presidency and that his likely running mate will be Calvin Hope, Vice President of the Barbados Cricket Board, who is also a CWI Director.

The pair, Mason reported, has the support of Guyana and Barbados and are confident of making inroads into “Skerritt territory”.

Nominations close on Thursday.

The ticket of Skerritt and Dr Kishore Shallow defeated then-incumbent Dave Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan 8-4 in March 2019 after a contentious campaign.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has congratulated the West Indies team on the record-breaking victory against Bangladesh in the first Test match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.

Led by an amazing double century by Kyle Mayers on debut, West Indies made 395-7 to win by three wickets. He made 210 not out and shared a superb partnership of 216 with fellow debutant Nkrumah Bonner, who made 86.

The superb batting performance was the second-highest score in a successful run chase in West Indies Test history and the highest run chase in a Test match in Asia.

 CWI President Ricky Skerritt lauded team and their performance, which brought great joy to West Indies supporters around the world.

“Congratulations to Captain Kraigg Brathwaite and our entire squad for an exceptional display of composure and desire,” Skerritt said in a statement.

“Led by debutant Kyle Mayers, it was a fighting team performance overall. The people of our region should walk a little taller today and the challenges of COVID-19 should temporarily be overshadowed by this astonishing West Indies Test victory. The hard work will continue.”

Mayers was named Man-of-the-Match for the knock that turned the match around for the West Indies.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has signed a five-year deal with BT Sport for the exclusive live coverage in the United Kingdom of all West Indies international home matches played in the Caribbean.

Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, Ricky Skerritt, is adamant that the recent refusal by senior players to take part in the ongoing tour of Bangladesh and the subsequent results must be framed within the broader context of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The regional team was on the wrong side of a 3-0 mauling, at the hands of Bangladesh, in a lopsided series that showed a tremendous gulf in quality between the two teams.

The result could not have been entirely unexpected, as a full-strength Bangladesh comfortably beat a full-strength West Indies team in 2019.  The Jason-Mohammed team that took the field last week had at least eight players making their international debut.

Skerritt’s administration has made it clear that players who opt out of tours during the pandemic will not be punished, believes that the threat that the disease poses to the players must be acknowledged.

“We have to deal with the reality that players are facing a tremendously stressful decision about their careers and whether they participate in cricket under risky situations; even though cricket West Indies and other boards are doing everything possible to minimize the risk,” Skerritt told the Mason and Guest radio show.

“What do you do to get the best players on the park, when many of the best players are reluctant to travel and choose not to play?  Are you going to punish them? Are you going to say if you don’t play then you don’t play again ever, then you lose them forever?”

"I listen to some of the discussion’s about COVID and I wonder if we believe that COVID only affects us individually and we should be fearful, but players and others shouldn’t.  So what has happened with this particular tour and the two tours before, during COVID is that you could not get all of your best players on tour at the same time.”

 

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has finalized a groundbreaking new five-year deal with ESPN+ for the exclusive media and digital rights in the United States to all West Indies international home matches and regional tournaments.

CWI’s media partnership with ESPN will bring West Indies cricket to millions of households and viewers across the United States through the ESPN+ sports streaming service.

The ESPN+ partnership will feature live broadcast of every international West Indies home series covering all T20 Internationals, One-Day Internationals and Test matches within the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Future Tours Programme (FTP). Commencing with the all-format Tour of the Caribbean by Sri Lanka in March, ESPN+ first year will feature series against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in 2021 building to five home series in 2022 including tours by England and India.

“This is CWI’s largest-ever media rights agreement in the USA and is the first of several new multi-year agreements which we will confirm in the coming weeks. Broadcast media rights income is crucial to the future financial sustainability of CWI, and this five-year rights agreement is just the start of good things to come,” said CWI President Ricky Skerritt.

The new agreement also includes CWI’s marquee regional 50-over tournament, the CG Insurance Super50 Cup, which is also aired exclusively in the Caribbean by ESPN.

The CG Insurance Super50 Cup will be the first live cricket from the West Indies in the partnership, as the biggest regional rivalries and world-class players take the stage from February 7 to 27 at the Coolidge Cricket Ground and the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua http://www.windiescricket.com).

“ESPN is THE sports channel for American households and sports fans and we’re delighted that West Indies cricket will now be enjoyed in the homes and on the devices of millions of Americans. We have an ambitious strategic plan to grow our brand and content in North America, and ESPN is the perfect partner to help us achieve our goals,” said CWI CEO Johnny Grave.

Meanwhile, John Lasker, Vice President, ESPN Digital Media Programming said Cricket West Indies is among the best in the world and their ICC schedule over the next few years is second to none.

“Cricket has always been a priority for us with ESPNcrincinfo leading the way as the premier destination for cricket coverage and news. Adding a strong slate of CWI events to ESPN+ is just the latest example of our commitment to cricket and serving fans with the best, most comprehensive cricket content in the U.S,” he said.

CWI President Ricky Skerritt has described the late Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart as a true West Indian legend following news of the latter’s passing on Monday.