COVID-19: Cricket West Indies chief says board has suffered a ‘stroke’
Kingston, May 16 (IANS) With cricket tours around the world coming to a standstill, Cricket West Indies (CWI) chief Ricky Skerritt has said that the coronavirus pandemic has badly affected the cricket body and pushed it into ‘Intensive Care Unit’. Cost cutting measure are a priority for CWI keeping an eye on how the pandemic has seen cricket tours being cancelled or postponed.
“This crisis has put our already poor financial state into ICU. It is like going to the doctor with an illness, and as he is about to prescribe the medication, you get a stroke,” Skerritt said in an interview to Guardian Media Sports.
He went on to explain how a committee has been set up to assess the future with tours being rescheduled or cancelled and a report is expected to come on May 27 at the board’s next quarterly meeting.
“What this committee will do is to look at that and also look at the emergency situation that this COVID-19 pandemic has thrown us into and recommend what can be done,” he said.
“This committee may expect to be looking to not massage on the body but make deep surgical incisions, as far as the cutting-back process goes. What we have been doing all the while is cost saving, but I think the time has come for cost cutting.”We have about 100 cricketers on retainers, and the board has had to fund this professional league. This has come at great expense to us, and all these things will be looked at.”
Interestingly, an official of one of the full member boards of the ICC told IANS after the CEC meeting that it is important for the BCCI and the ECB to stand up and come together to help other member boards out of the mess.
“The BCCI and the ECB need to come together and help the game out. You have to understand that at this point in time, the member boards need the Indian and English teams to play everyone to help recover from the economical setback and for that you need strong leadership coming in from BCCI. You need someone from BCCI to be sitting in the principal’s chair,” he explained.
–IANS
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