Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 26, 2019 (SKNIS):St. Kitts and Nevis’ Deputy Prime Minister Honourable Shawn Richards expressed heartfelt congratulations to Richard “Ricky” Skerritt for being elected as the new President of Cricket West Indies (CWI) noting that he has the full support of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Mr. Skerritt was elected to the post on Sunday March 24, 2019, with an 8-4 margin defeating Dave Cameron, who held the post as CWI President since March 2013.
The deputy prime minister, who also serves as the Minister of Sports, travelled to the Sir R. L. Bradshaw International Airport on Monday night(March 25, 2019) to welcome Skerritt home. He was joined for a brief ceremony at the VIP Lounge by officials from the St. Kitts Cricket Association, Nevis Cricket Association, Leeward Islands Cricket Board, Skerritt’s family and other well-wishers.
Minister Richards noted the long history that Skerritt has with local and regional cricket including a tenure as Manager of the West Indies Cricket Men’s Senior Team from 2000 to 2004. He said that this undoubtedly played an important role in his successful bid to lead CWI at this time.
“I do believe that you would have been elected because there has been that particular cry in terms of where West Indies Cricket is at this particular point in time and there was a felt need for new leadership to move the West Indies Team forward,” Honourable Richard said. “It is because of that [and] what you represent and what you have been able to do in the past that [led] the majority of persons who would have voted [to] repose their confidence in you.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richards expressed that the government has full confidence in Skerrit’s leadership and said that they are committed to continue efforts to advance cricket locally, regionally and internationally.
President Skerritt thanked God for his blessings and noted that he was proud to have been successful, along with his running mate Kishore Shallow – the newly elected CWI Vice President. He said that the hard work that went into crafting a strategy to advance CWI, and the support of Mr. Shallow, the Leeward Islands Cricket Board, the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, and a host of volunteers was very much appreciated.
“We were able to generate a momentum because we had started off by listening to the people, to cricket lovers, to former cricketers, to cricket administrators, to government officials and we basically said if we are going to do this we are going to do this properly so that when we get victory we will be ready to hit the ground running and we have already hit the ground running,” President Skerritt stated.
He got emotional when he spoke about the support from his family, particularly his wife who essentially told him at the end of last year that the Caribbean needed him, and he was the right man to meet the challenges facing Caribbean cricket.
Mr. Skerritt assured that his team is ready to meet the challenges head on.
