Dear Editor,
I am a law-abiding world citizen from Guyana who believes in the rule of law, fairness and respect. I was born into cricket, from my grandfather right down and as a lad, I endured the painful rebuilding of WI cricket from the early seventies, gloated in the triumphs and dominance of the Clive Lloyd and Sir Vivian Richards era and watched on with absolute horror its consistent decline to present, the worst in its history. In all the fluctuations there has always been one common denominator, a set of cricket administrators who have been condescending, disrespectful and for the past 30 years the worst of them all from the Hunte era to this subject I call Shallow.
In a perfectly demonstrated instance of madness and stupidity, the current WICB Chief announced that Darren Sammy will replace Mr. Cooley as coach of the WI team and would be the WI cricket overall coach and selector. In other words, he was given full authority to select the WI team and coach them. This was after Cooley had coached a group of young WI cricketers to draw a series against Australia, something which WI had not done for 27 years and then drew a series against Pakistan in Pakistan, something that was not achieved in about 3 decades.
Without even trying the team he appointed Roston Chase as captain, Warrican as Vice Captain, dropped a few players and brought in those that he preferred and faced the Australians at home. The result was a most embarrassing 0-3 humiliation including being bowled out at Sabina Park for 27 runs in the fourth innings. The reality is that Sammy WI team under Chase’s Captaincy has not won a single test match after three series.
Captain Chase, after 8 tests as captain has scored 221 averaging 13.81 and has taken 9 wickets at 70.66 apiece and vice captain Warrican who could have only made the team 4 times, took 5 wickets at 58.00 apiece. In fact, Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph have higher batting and bowling averages than Chase and Warrican – so tell me how in the name of Almighty God are Chase and Warrican captain and vice-captain? Any other player with those statistics would have been dropped from any team in the world but Sammy is comfortable with them as captain and vice-captain. Kavem Hodge, who Sammy dropped to find a place for Chase, played 2 test matches and averaged 52.46 and took 2 wickets at 46.00 a piece which represents better bowling average than Chase and Warrican. He has chopped and changed and monkey around himself in every way he can but still cannot win a single test.
Tell me how can Shallow justify disposing of Cooley who drew the last 2 series and selecting and keeping Sammy who has lost every single test match with some of the same players? How can Shallow allow a captain and vice captain to remain in charge of a team when their personal performance cannot justify a place in the team? If this is not madness and stupidity of the highest order, then the world is flat. How can Reifer be kept on as a batting coach when the batting has continuously failed? There is absolutely no doubt that the man is useless. A gentleman told me that it is difficult not to recognise insularity in WI cricket. He pointed out that Holder, Braithwaite and now Chase has been successive Bajan West Indies captains. Warrican, Reifer, Hope, Roach, Greaves and Johann Layne are all Bajans as well.
Not a single living WI cricket legend has made any statement pointing to some positivity of WI cricket and the current administration. Maybe only the blind can see any merit in keeping Sammy as Coach and Chase and Warrican as captain and vice captain of the WI team. And it is because I foresaw that this was going to happen and continue to happen that prompted me to call for Guyana to withdraw from WI cricket. For the sake of saving WI cricket from further embarrassment and disgrace, this Shallow and company set of administrators deserve a “Maduro” type of intervention and outcome. Dereck Murray called for an interim committee to run WI cricket to save it, something I have called for earlier in 2025, but as we all realize it will not happen.
WI Cricket Boards has always had a history of treating its players with contempt but these from Hunte, Cameron and now Shallow (Skerritt excluded) have been the most destructive and disgraceful administrators ever to have anything to do with cricket in the history of the game. I had said, when Hunte and Hillaire started their madness that it could only be about the small islands dominating WI cricket and Enoch Lewis in late 2025 confirmed everything I had said. He gloated that Leeward Island cricketers were now being paid to play cricket and a lot of other nonsense, but never for one minute spoke of the state of WI cricket and how that has had a positive impact. Cameron had boasted that his regional League was supposed to see the turnaround of WI cricket, but I am on record of stating quite clearly that a league of mediocre will only produce more mediocrity. I read something to the effect where he, on Andrew Mason programme, ended up criticizing the same League.
The truth is historically, WI had a strong school and Club cricket structure, which produced good cricketers, but always lacked the structure to move its players to professional heights and that is still the case today. English League and County cricket was what completed our players and when those contracts evaporated and went to players from other countries, WI was doomed to failure and that is one of the reasons why we are where we are today.
WI is the only cricket-playing nation that does not have a network of cricket academies. The club system in the WI is a disgrace and not even a shadow to what is was in the seventies and even the eighties. And if there is a weak club system then the product will be rubbish. In Guyana a gentleman by the name of Mr. Foster of the Rose Hall Youth & Sports Club, years ago, embarked on investing in a yearly coaching programme, which I ensured was the recipient of corporate financial support when I served as a senior executive. Almost all the Guyanese players who broke into the WI team are products of that programme. You who are reading this are smart enough to figure out the rest.
2026 may be the year when WI will be relegated to minnows status and loose its test status. I do not want it to happen but with “The Shallow” and company ably supported by Sammy, Chase and company, it is difficult to see nothing but more disgrace and disaster for WI cricket. It has never been so bad and it will only get worse.