West Indies has consistently separated itself from other cricket nations by the chaotic way successive cricket administrations have responded to crises in regional cricket.
Consider this. After being “black washed” a second time by W.I in 1986, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) decided to look inward, convinced that the country had the talent and the cricket infrastructure to again become a force in world cricket. The wisdom of that move would become apparent in less than a decade.
When Australia lost its fizz after the Packer challenge, Cricket Australia (CA) appointed former captain, Bob Simpson as its first formal coach. He promptly identified a group of players with the requisite grit, talent and patriotism– Steve Waugh, David Boon, Mark Taylor and Ian Healy–who in 1989 propelled Australia to the first of its 15 consecutive Ashes wins over England. Australia’s Cricket Academy began reaping instant dividends after it was established in 1997, producing the likes of Shane Warne, Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist, and Jason Gillespie.
New Zealand cricket experienced a rebirth driven by strong leadership on and off the field. Captaincy of the team moved seamlessly from Brendon McCallum to Kane Williamson, to Tim Southee and now Tom Latham. Instructively, most of New Zealand’s Test players are heavily engaged in franchise cricket around the world with little negative impact on their performance in Test cricket.
In June 2025, South Africa placed an exclamation mark on its 27-year journey back from cricket wilderness, by convincingly beating Australia to win the final of the World Test Championship (WTC).
By contrast, the administration of W.I cricket has been unsteady and uninspiring. Indeed, it could be argued that our 15-year dominance of world cricket, which ended at Sabina Park in 1995, was achieved despite the maladministration of regional and domestic cricket.
Arguably, three of the biggest failures of W.I cricket administrators are: (1) the unmanaged retirement of experienced players like Sir Vivian Richards, Jeffry Dujon, and Gordon Greenidge who served as the nucleus of W.I’s triumphant reign; (2) chaotic changes of coaches; and (3)  poor response to the rise of franchise cricket and the participation of elite W.I players in it.
On the first point, some argued that the selection of Richie Richardson as captain over Desmond Haynes was ill-advised. In hindsight, Richardson did not do too badly, until he resigned in 1995, because of stress and burnout. He won 11, lost 6 and drew 7 of his 24 Tests as captain.
However, what is beyond question is that the failure of the WICB to identify a suitable, long-term replacement for Richardson had a distinctly negative impact on the fortunes of W.I cricket. The captaincy meandered among Courtney Walsh, Brian Lara (phase 1), Jimmy Adams, Carl Hooper, Lara, (phase 2), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnawesh Sarwan, Floyd Reifer, and Chris Gayle, before Darren Sammy was entrusted with the role in 2010.
Undoubtedly, Lara’s captaincy was the most calamitous. It began with an ugly match fee dispute on the eve of the 5-Test series against South Africa, in which W.I was whitewashed. Lara won 10 and lost 26 Tests of 47 Tests as Captain. Sammy performed marginally better, winning 8 and losing 12 of his 30 Tests as captain. In his defense, it could be said that he did not have as good a Test team as Lara to work with and that he led W.I to 2 successive T20 World Cup wins.
Sammy was replaced by Dinesh Ramdin, who was replaced by Jason Holder. Sadly, he was sacked in 2020, just as he appeared to be warming to his role. His successor, Brathwaite, did not deliver the goods, winning 10 and losing 22 of 39 Tests as Captain. In late 2024, he relinquished the captaincy to focus on his batting. We know how that worked out. Current captain, Roston Chase, has made an inauspicious start, with 3 losses in his first 3 Tests. I regard Chase to be a committed cricketer, but I don’t expect him to succeed if other factors ailing W.I cricket, such as coaching, are not addressed.
Richard Pybus’ dismissal as coach in 2019 still troubles me. It happened mere months after he had guided W.I to a convincing Test series victory against England and on the eve of the 2019 World Cup and, His dismissal was never satisfactorily explained. It’s alleged that he became unpopular for closing the West Indies’ High-Performance Centre in Barbados—something that he alone could not have done. It’s widely believed that the real reason for his dismissal was his insistence that only players who made themselves available for selection in regional tournaments would be considered to represent West Indies internationally. Indeed, CWI President Ricky Skerrit practically confirmed this, when soon after his election, he announced that his Board had decided to immediately adjust its selection policy “…to become more open, inclusive, and player-centric” and that “the old, embedded selection policy which secretly, but actively, victimized some players and banished them from selection consideration” had been terminated.
Phil Simmons, who was unceremoniously fired by the Cameron-led CWI in 2015, due to “differences in culture and strategic approach” returned to the job. Basically, He craved greater freedom to select W.I teams and publicly resented the Board’s interference in the selection process. During his first stint as coach, W.I won one and lost 9 of 14 Tests. Three of these losses were by an inning, two by 9 wickets and two by 150 runs. Presumably, Simmons was re-appointed because the Skerrit-led CWI did not hold him responsible for that abysmal Test record and credited him for helping to steer W.I to its first T20 World Cup win in 2016. Admittedly, during Simmons’ second spell as coach, West Indies registered Test wins over England and Bangladesh. In 2022, Simmons prematurely resigned after W.I crashed out of the first round of the T20 World Cup in Australia– a result he described as “unfathomable.” Things would deteriorate after that.