Cricket West Indies (CWI) believes territorial politicians should have no bearing on the regional governing body’s allocation of international matches.
Speaking following the recent West Indies vs Ireland series, CWI Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave said, CWI’s current policy was geared towards ensuring that all Caribbean countries benefitted from the international home series for both men’s and women’s fixtures.
However, he said, it was important that CWI maximized its marketing thrust, especially at some venues, in order to increase attendances.
“I want to take all the politics out of the decision-making when it comes to allocating games,” Grave told the Mason and Guest cricket show in Barbados.
He noted that the biggest crowd in the West Indies vs Ireland series was Grenada, which did not have cricket between 2015 and 2019 and it is important to spread cricket around the international grounds.
Grave is hoping that the board continues to support the policy where every international ground will get either a Test match or two either T20s or ODIs or combination of every single year.
The Ireland series, comprising One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals — the first international homes series this year, was Barbados, Grenada and St. Kitts.
When the New Zealand team arrives in July, the white-ball series will be hosted in Antigua, Dominica, and Guyana, with Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia and Jamaica staging matches on South Africa’s full tour of the Caribbean in July and August.
