President of Cricket West Indies (CWI) Dave Cameron says that the transformation of Windies cricket has begun after years in the doldrums.
“This transformation is well underway and we are seeing the first positive results of measures we put in place between 2014 and today," said Cameron at the Hall of Fame awards held recently in New York, USA.
“The goal of CWI Inc, simply put, is to establish a foundation to allow West Indies Cricket to survive and thrive for generations to come. Overall, the idea is to bring West Indies cricket into viability, which involves changing the way we think of cricket, specifically, changing the way we organise ourselves as a region around a brand and franchise. It means, as the president of the Caribbean Development Bank Dr Warren Smith, said to me shortly after I assumed the presidency, that West Indies Cricket must have a financial imperative.”
The Jamaican continued: “We must have a financial imperative because beyond our collective passion for the sport, there has traditionally been little more to unite a team sourced from a number of independent nations scattered thousands of miles apart from each other. Because we are not a single country, the West Indies Cricket brand is and has always been, a bold experiment, fuelled by our passion for the sport. Now, while that passion has kept our brand viable through the decades, the 21st century, our region can no longer treat cricket as a mere pastime, not when we can see in other sporting franchises, the successes the power of sport has to deliver sustained development. The cricket world of 2018 is one that encompasses the greatest variety of opportunities to play different forms of the sport ever in history. The purses are the largest due to the many forms of media, the audiences are the largest and cricket is steadily growing in popularity around the world. For us in the Caribbean West Indies cricket has, at its most glorious moments, highlighted the tremendous power of unity, and in its darkest hours offers glimmers of our fate divided."
He added, “When I assumed the presidency of the WICB in 2013, it was with a clear understanding of the reverence and relevance of the sport to our people, but also of the sequential failures associated with West Indies cricket in recent years. I believed then, and I continue to believe now, that West Indies cricket, as one of the two most recognisable regional brands, the other being the University of the West Indies represented by Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, can present a blueprint for Caribbean unity, built around passion and productivity related to cricket.”
The president gave the figures in terms of the increasing number of professional cricketers that have come to the fore under his watch.
“In 2013 when I began my first term as president, there were between 15 and 25 professional players in the West Indies, that is 25 or fewer cricketers who had contracts to play full time and were paid to do so. My intention was to grow the cricket industry.
"Today, due to our restructuring measures, we have the largest global growth in professional players. According to the 2017 Global Employment Report issued by the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, the West Indies have 177 active professional cricketers, allowing them to earn a living from playing full time. Of that amount, we have at least 110 on retainer contracts with CWI. Our cohort of 177 professional players puts us in the company of Australia, which has 188 and New Zealand 134. In addition to the 177 cricketers, we have 12 professional contracts with female cricketers, allowing us for the first time in West Indies history to field a full squad of professional women.”