Cameron ending Cricket HPC a strategic error: Sir Wes Hall

In an interview during The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Vice-Chancellor’s XI Cricket Match last Sunday, February 17, 2019 at the 3Ws Oval in Barbados, Sir Wes Hall told the media that President Dave Cameron’s decision to pull the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), now Cricket West Indies (CWI) out of the High Performance Centre (HPC)—a partnership with Sagicor and The UWI—was a major strategic error. He emphasized that the young players who are now rebuilding the West Indies brand came out of the HPC where the legends were invited to meet them; noting that Holder, Brathwaite, Gabriel, Hetmeyer, Dowrich, Campbell, and others, were all HPC graduates. Now, he suggested, CWI has no learning ecosystem for the next emerging group, and given that the HPC produced the current leadership and regional commitment, its absence is irrational.

Sir Wes’ comments follow upon a recent statement by Dr Rudi Webster, performance counsellor to the West Indian ‘dream team’ led by Clive Lloyd, and founder of the Shell Cricket academy, which preceded the Sagicor UWI WICB High Performance Centre (HPC). Dr Webster noted that the encouraging current mental approach emerging from the young players was positive, and that in order to flourish, a new leadership capacity at CWI was required. Webster’s belief that there was an absence of 21st Century innovative thinking at the core of the CWI leadership highlights the views of Sir Wes that Cameron’s withdrawal from the HPC facility for young players was short-sighted and not in the best interest of West Indies cricket.

In his interview, Sir Wes also expressed the view that a coach who does not understand the cricket culture of the region and a need for the role of education in building and sustaining the culture, will not succeed.

Sir Wes Hall was one of three West Indian cricketers whose outstanding global contributions were honoured by The UWI at the VC’s XI Match. He, along with Sir Garfield Sobers and Sir Everton Weekes were celebrated as West Indian “immortals”.