Windwards Cricket woes continue

One is not quite sure what to say about cricket in the Windward Islands these days just as has been the case when the days Julian Hunte was the president of the sub regional cricketing body – Windward Islands Cricket Board. Somehow it seems that the sport in the sub region is doomed and for a number of reasons very few of which, if any at all, have been systematically addressed.

Planning
For several years we have heard talk about planning being done to help the development of cricket in the Caribbean. We now know that there has been far more talk than actual planning taking place and this at a time when the leadership of West Indies cricket has been changing almost as fast as women’s fashion.
It has often been said that if the head is rotten the body will have grave difficulty escaping the unsavoury consequences. This is the case of the game of cricket in the Windward Islands.
With annual competitions that are all woefully deficient in terms of appeal to the masses and financially unprofitable the leaders of cricket in the Windward Islands have apparently lost their way in the general malaise that is West Indies cricket. Try as hard as one might it is extremely difficult to see evidence of planning at the level of the Windward Islands.
We have been told that the sub region has talent and for sure the game enjoys pride of place in the eyes of the politicians who garner most votes at general elections. The sport has more than double the facilities of any other sport in any of the islands of the Windward grouping. The same may well be the case for the entire Caribbean where the game is played at a significant level. Yet, for all the facilities at their disposal the cricket bosses have been unable to lift the sport. Indeed over the years they have witnessed its demise.