Ricky Skerritt confirmed as CWI president for second term

Both he and his deputy Kishore Shallow were elected unopposed

Ricky Skerritt has been officially elected for a second term as president of Cricket West Indies. Skerritt and his deputy Kishore Shallow were elected unopposed at CWI’s annual general meeting, held virtually, on April 11. The fresh two-year term will last until March 2023.

Skerritt was virtually confirmed for a second term after his rival Anand Sanasie and his running mate Calvin Hope announced on April 1 that they were withdrawing from the contest. While Hope had sent a formal withdrawal at the time, it is understood Sanasie officially notified the CWI only last weekend that he was quitting the race.

Skerritt, who also sits on the ICC’s board and lost the race for the deputy chairman of cricket’s governing body by a single vote, said he was “humbled” to get a second term at CWI.

“We have much unfinished work to do, and we renew our pledge to work untiringly to help achieve sustainable improvement, both on and off the field, for West Indies cricket,” Skerritt said in a CWI media release on Sunday.

Shallow, the CWI vice-president, said being re-elected was a “victory for West Indies cricket as we continue on the path of growing the game across the region, and achieving good outcomes on all fronts and at all levels.”

Skerritt, a former West Indies manager, was a favourite to get re-elected after he had ticked most of his 10-point agenda during his first term which had started in 2019 when he had unseated Dave Cameron, who had been the CWI president for six years.

Skerritt had defeated Cameron by an 8-4 margin at the CWI elections in 2019. This time, too, Skerritt was a favourite to regain his position by a similar margin but the CWI elections had to be postponed on March 28 due to a lack of a quorum. Representatives from the Guyana Cricket Board (where Sanasie was the former secretary) and Barbados Cricket Association (where Hope is a vice-president) were absent. For quorum, at least nine out of 12 voters had to be present, but with the GCB and BCA representatives not showing up, the CWI had to call off the election.