Despite the limited success in recent times, incoming Cricket West Indies (CWI) CEO Chris Dehring believes the West Indies brand is still strong and will be more competitive in the future with better systems in place.

The prominent Jamaican businessman, who served as CEO of the 2007 ICC ODI World Cup in the Caribbean, will replace Englishman Johnny Grave as the CEO of the region’s governing body after being selected from a pool of over 50 candidates worldwide. His stint is to begin on February 1, 2025.

Although the Windies won the Twenty20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016, the team has struggled for consistency in other formats, which sees them ranked eighth in International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings and 10th in the ODI rankings.

However, speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Dehring says the team is still extremely valuable and intends to leverage its marketability to improve the team’s quality.

“We’re talking about a brand that has significant roots. Now we need to find new ways of watering those roots and make sure the tree continues to flourish,” he said.

“Since news of my appointment, the kind of phone calls I’ve been getting from around the world shows people still care about this wonderful institution so we need to do everything we can and explore every option. The spread and growth of technology around the world has dramatically changed on how sport is consumed, how West Indies cricket is consumed across the world, so we need to explore every avenue to maximise them,” Dehring added.

CWI has put more focus on its development programmes, as they recently awarded 30 full-time contracts to the West Indies Academy players and has put in place various initiatives for its emerging talent, including a training camp with Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings.

Dehring says increasing these kinds of initiatives will help to produce better players for its senior teams.

“It is self-evident that we have the athletic talent that is necessary to compete. What we need to do now is try to create and enhance that production pipeline all the way from attracting youngsters into the sport from a very early age, seeing through the development pipeline, then all the way through to the international scene and to make sure that we have that output as consistent as possible,” he said.

While the West Indies team excelled in the 1970s and 1980s, the team has seen a major decline since then. In the last decade, the West Indies have less than a 25 per cent win percentage in Test cricket and just under 40 per cent in ODIs.

However, Dehring is confident they can rival the world’s best again in the coming years after implementing improved systems.

“One of the challenges we have is the West Indies were spoilt by a generation of cricketers who were the greatest cricketers the world has ever seen, and we dominated the world like no other professional team has dominated their sport. If we set our expectation there, being occasionally competitive isn’t going to satisfy most Caribbean people. But we do want to have a more competitive team that is consistently competitive,” he said.

“Winning is obviously the ultimate objective, but in sports, you don’t always win. What we want to make sure is we give ourselves the best opportunity of winning and that’s by putting on the field a competitive team at every level, men and women, and nurturing that and putting in a production pipeline that will see a consistent quality of cricketer coming out as much the resources we have in the Caribbean will allow.”

Incoming Cricket West Indies Chief Executive Officer Chris Dehring

Keacy Carty (left) of West Indies smiles as teammate Brandon King celebrates his century during the third and final One Day International match against England at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, on November 6, 2024. (Photo: AFP)