“I have no control over that. As I mentioned earlier, my contract expires in June 2023. Am I a quitter, though? Will I be stepping down? I’m not, he answered. Grave, who was hired in January 2017, said, “The Cricket West Indies board of directors will decide whether that contract gets renewed.” After losing to Scotland and Ireland in the qualifying rounds, the West Indies unexpectedly tumbled out of the World Cup. The only victory for the two-time champions, who had to win two games in order to advance to the Super 12 stage, came against Zimbabwe. Grave stated that no one person or organisation was solely to blame for the regional team’s underwhelming performance.
It would be quite understandable that Johnny Grave, the Briton who is CEO of Cricket West Indies (CWI), may not be deeply invested in the political history and sociology of Caribbean cricket, or why images of the calypsonian, Lord Kitchener, and other early Windrush migrants running on to the field at Lord’s during the 1950 series, are so seared into the minds of older generations of West Indians. Or why people are nostalgic for the feats of the team that emerged a quarter of a century later, beyond the statistics of their exploits.
Mr Grave, perhaps, sees himself merely as a technocrat, concerned primarily with operational efficiencies, for which he is accountable to his chairman and directors of CWI, who, like most of today’s players, probably see and analyse West Indies cricket management and outcomes merely as a commercial and entertainment endeavour, little concerned with the historiography of the game.
CEO Johnny Grave has stated he will not be leaving Cricket West Indies (CWI), although acknowledging that CWI must bear full responsibility for the West Indies’ underwhelming performance in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. He vowed on Tuesday night that he was no quitter, just over a day after CWI announced that head coach Phil Simmons was stepping down following the Windies’ tournament elimination in the first round. When Grave made an appearance on VOB 92.9 in Barbados’ Mason and Guest show, a question was posed to him regarding his potential role as CEO when the West Indies start their 2024 T20 World Cup campaign.
So Mr Grave, in common with the other administrators of West Indies cricket, can be bitterly disappointed with, and accept collective responsibility of sorts for, the West Indies’ humiliating ejection from the T20 Cricket World Cup and sees no need to offer his resignation.
Leave a Reply