ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies pres­i­dent Dr Kishore Shal­low has warned there is no “quick fix” to the is­sues fac­ing West In­dies crick­et, and has called for a col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach by stake­hold­ers to find­ing “sus­tain­able so­lu­tions.”

Speak­ing ahead of his at­ten­dance at the Re­gion­al Con­fer­ence on West In­dies Crick­et start­ing in Port of Spain on Thurs­day, Shal­low said “col­lec­tive ac­tion and shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty” would be re­quired in or­der to re­store the game to its for­mer glo­ry in the re­gion.

“While we have made con­sid­er­able progress with­in CWI, set­ting the stage for a brighter fu­ture for West In­dies Crick­et, it’s es­sen­tial to recog­nise that there is no quick fix ad­dress­ing the com­plex chal­lenges fac­ing our sport,” said Shal­low.

“It re­quires sus­tained ef­fort and par­tic­i­pa­tion from all stake­hold­ers in­volved.”

He con­tin­ued: “While CWI shoul­ders a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, we un­der­stand that mean­ing­ful progress can­not be achieved in iso­la­tion.

“It is cru­cial for all stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing CARI­COM Gov­ern­ments, ter­ri­to­r­i­al boards, and oth­er rel­e­vant en­ti­ties, to ac­tive­ly en­gage and con­tribute to the ad­vance­ment of West In­dies Crick­et.”

The con­fer­ence themed “Rein­vig­o­rat­ing West In­dies Crick­et – A Sym­po­sium for Strate­gic Col­lab­o­ra­tion and In­no­va­tion” is be­ing joint­ly staged by the Trinidad and To­ba­go gov­ern­ment and re­gion­al na­tion group­ing, CARI­COM, and chaired by host Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

A lead­ing pro­po­nent of gov­er­nance re­form in the re­gion­al body, Row­ley al­so serves as chair­man of the CARI­COM Prime Min­is­te­r­i­al Sub-Com­mit­tee on Crick­et.

The stag­ing of the con­fer­ence was one of the de­ci­sions aris­ing from the 46th Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment of CARI­COM held in Guyana last Feb­ru­ary.

Dis­cus­sions dur­ing the con­fer­ence will fo­cus on top­ics like ‘the Strate­gic Di­rec­tion of West In­dies Crick­et’, ‘Fi­nance and Com­mer­cial Con­sid­er­a­tions’ and ‘Fan En­gage­ment’.

Shal­low ex­pressed op­ti­mism ahead of the two-day con­fer­ence, not­ing that with the right so­lu­tions , West In­dies crick­et could again thrive.

“To­geth­er, we can forge sus­tain­able so­lu­tions that will pro­pel West In­dies Crick­et to new heights of suc­cess and promi­nence on the glob­al stage,” he point­ed out.

“We re­main com­mit­ted to build­ing up­on the progress we’ve made and chart­ing a course to­wards a vi­brant and pros­per­ous fu­ture for West In­dies Crick­et.

“Through col­lec­tive ac­tion and shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, we are con­fi­dent in our abil­i­ty to over­come chal­lenges and re­al­ize our vi­sion for the sport.”

Shal­low will be ac­com­pa­nied by CWI vice pres­i­dent, Az­im Bas­sarath; chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, John­ny Grave, di­rec­tor of crick­et, Miles Bas­combe, along with CWI di­rec­tors.

(CMC)