St John’s – Cricket West Indies (CWI) president, Ricky Skerritt, has hailed the release of a CWI annual report for 2020 for the first time in several years, and says the 36-page document is geared towards strengthening CWI’s relationship with stakeholders.
The release of the annual report follows the annual general meeting held on April 11, at which Skerritt and vice-president Dr Kishore Shallow were re-elected for a second two-year term.
CWI said the report was a “comprehensive” one which outlined the progress of the Cricket First policy, undertaken by Skerritt at the start of his first term in 2019, after defeating three-term incumbent Dave Cameron.
“The production of a holistic and analytical report to shareholders, published for general stakeholder reading, is not unprecedented,” Skerritt said in a statement.
“But, for various reasons, CWI has not prepared such an annual report for several years.
“I therefore wish to commend our executive management team for pursuing this particular project, as part of our effort to improve communication with all of our stakeholders.”
Labelled “Raising Our Game”, the report also includes the highly contentious audited financial statements which were at the centre of a controversy that led to the postponement of the March 28 annual general meeting.
The Barbados Cricket Association and Guyana Cricket Board boycotted the AGM, resulting in the lack of a quorum, after contending that CWI had failed to provide the audited statements the stipulated 14 days in advance of the meeting.
Areas such as strategic initiatives, fan engagement and commercial development, along with an overview of the last two-year period, have been covered in the report.
In his President’s message, Skerritt said the COVID-19 pandemic had been the major challenge for the governing body, and had called for innovation and courage over the last year.
“Fear of the virus has been disruptive for all live sports, and threatening to livelihoods within every sporting entity,” Skerritt said in the report.
“Fortunately, CWI pivoted quickly and appropriately to the forefront of the international risk management response.
“At significant cost and sacrifice, our medical team has successfully pioneered and partnered on the concept of a cricket-specific ‘bio secure bubble’ which has become a global standard.
“We have worked hard to learn and adapt to the needs of cricket to evolving international health and travel protocols.
“Although COVID-19 continues to be a serious threat to our cricket operations and vulnerable financial circumstances, we have demonstrated that wherever there are obstacles there are also opportunities to be creative and courageous.”
In his CEO’s message, Johnny Grave praised CWI’s tenacity in managing to properly navigate the disruption caused by COVID-19.
“2020 will always be remembered for the pandemic, COVID-19,” Grave said.
“Despite these unprecedented challenges, I am extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve over the past year and it is truly inspiring in the way that everyone, on and off the field, has come together and collaborated so quickly to respond to the significant changes and huge uncertainty.” (CMC)
