ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Crick­et West In­dies pres­i­dent, Dr Kishore Shal­low, said Thurs­day it was im­por­tant to con­front the chal­lenges fac­ing the re­gion­al game with “hon­esty and re­solve”, while us­ing the cur­rent mo­ment of dif­fi­cul­ty as a time of “in­tro­spec­tion and re­cal­i­bra­tion”.

In a state­ment to mark the cen­ten­ni­al birth­day of West In­dies’ first black Test cap­tain, Sir Frank Wor­rell, Shal­low al­so said the ap­proach to gov­er­nance of the game need­ed to re­flect the trans­for­ma­tion­al lead­er­ship which had char­ac­terised the West In­dies icon’s stel­lar lega­cy.

“As we ho­n­our Sir Frank Wor­rell’s cen­ten­ni­al, we must al­so con­front our cur­rent re­al­i­ties with hon­esty and re­solve,” said Shal­low, who as­sumed the reins of the re­gion­al gov­ern­ing body last year.

“We ac­knowl­edge that West In­di­an fans are not at their proud­est mo­ment re­gard­ing our teams’ per­for­mance. This is a time of in­tro­spec­tion and re­cal­i­bra­tion, a time for pur­pose­ful col­lab­o­ra­tion as we trust the process of change.

“Our com­mit­ment to trans­for­ma­tion in pur­suit of ex­cel­lence must be ev­i­dent. The con­tin­u­ous call for im­proved gov­er­nance must be ob­served.

“Sim­i­lar­ly, we must em­brace in­no­va­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty to strength­en our crick­et sys­tems, in­clud­ing coach­ing and se­lec­tions.

“In a cli­mate and in­dus­try where ad­ver­si­ties are ever-present, and the odds are stacked against us, pru­den­cy in every as­pect must be the or­der of the day.”

Re­fer­ring to Sir Frank’s lega­cy as a “guid­ing light”, Shal­low urged the crick­et fra­ter­ni­ty to ral­ly be­hind the prin­ci­ples which had un­der­pinned the Bar­ba­di­an’s life and ca­reer.

He al­so un­der­scored the val­ue of ed­u­ca­tion in crick­et de­vel­op­ment, stress­ing that the sto­ries of the re­gion’s leg­ends need­ed to be used to “in­spire fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.”

“Ed­u­ca­tion must re­main at the heart of our vi­sion,” Shal­low said.

“A crit­i­cal com­po­nent of ad­vanc­ing West In­dies crick­et is for our young crick­eters to learn about the his­to­ry of the Caribbean, crick­et be­ing a sub­ject of para­mount im­por­tance. The lega­cy of leg­ends like Sir Frank must be shared in all forms pos­si­ble to in­spire fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

“Sir Frank Wor­rell’s lega­cy is a guid­ing light, a tes­ta­ment to what can be achieved when we dare to dream and work to­geth­er. As we cel­e­brate his life and con­tri­bu­tions, let us recom­mit our­selves to the prin­ci­ples he stood for – uni­ty, ex­cel­lence, and an un­wa­ver­ing pur­suit of progress.

“His sto­ry is our sto­ry, and as we move for­ward, let us car­ry his spir­it with us, striv­ing to build a fu­ture wor­thy of his lega­cy.”

Born on Au­gust 1, 1924, Sir Frank made his de­but in 1948 be­fore go­ing on to lead West In­dies in 15 of his 51 Tests, in­clud­ing the now fa­mous Tied Test at the Gab­ba in 1960, and is cred­it­ed with hav­ing ush­ered in a new era of lead­er­ship in West In­dies crick­et.

He was a mem­ber of the leg­endary Three Ws – along­side fel­low Bar­ba­di­ans Sir Clyde Wal­cott and Sir Ever­ton Weekes – form­ing a star-stud­ded side of the 1950s and 60s which fea­tured the likes of the in­com­pa­ra­ble Sir Gar­ry Sobers and Ro­han Kan­hai.

“Sir Frank’s tenure as cap­tain was more than a chap­ter in a crick­et­ing saga; it was a piv­otal mo­ment in our re­gion’s so­cial and cul­tur­al re­nais­sance,” Shal­low said.

“Un­der his stew­ard­ship, the West In­dies team be­came a sym­bol of pos­si­bil­i­ty, a man­i­fes­ta­tion of our col­lec­tive dreams and as­pi­ra­tions. His abil­i­ty to bring to­geth­er play­ers from di­verse back­grounds in­to a co­he­sive, for­mi­da­ble unit taught us that, as a peo­ple, uni­ty is our great­est strength.”

CMC