Cricket West Indies(CWI) president David Cameron has come out and expressed the desire to continue to invest in the various cricket development programmes under the supervision of the board amidst the prevailing financial challenges. 

During the CWI/West Indies Players Association (WIPA) awards ceremony on Wednesday at Barbados, Cameron said, “There are challenging times ahead. I must tell you this year we are financially challenged but we have ensured that there will be no cutting back on any of our development programmes to ensure that we can deliver on our mandate which is to build our brand and to make us very proud again of West Indies cricket,” 

“Our request to you guys is to play to the best of your ability. We want you to go from strength to strength and I want you to believe that you are unstoppable. The sky is the limit and Cricket West Indies will support you all the way.”

With players from the West Indies Test side and the touring Sri Lankan team present, Cameron said he is delighted with the home team leading the series 1-0 and wants them to seal the series in Barbados. 

“I am happy to be standing here on the threshold of our second series triumph in less than a year. Sri Lanka, we welcome you, but we also want to leave here next week with a series win. It is very important to the West Indies team,”

Camero believes it is the work behind the scenes by people like him that is finally paying off. He said, “No longer can we use the excuse that we do not have pool of talent in the region to compete in world cricket. Four years ago, we had just over 25 professional cricketers in the West Indies, and today, we have 177"

“What we have to do is to continue to upscale our cricketers, our management, our coaching staff and the administrative staff in order to produce world-class players. It continues to be a competitive environment for our players and there are times when decisions may not go your way"

“We are guaranteed enough cricket over the next 18 months to ensure that we are in good shape, so we are providing the platform for all of our players across the region,” 

Cameron has his ambitions set. He wants to see the glory days back for the Cricket in the Caribbean and says, winning next year's World Cup in England could be the start of it. 

“Our big aim is to win the World Cup in England next year. People say that I am crazy and asked how can we beat the best teams in the world in 12 months. Well, Scotland just beat England, the number one ranked team in the world, England is beating Australia, so anything is possible and here we are in the brink of a Test series victory over Sri Lanka. I think we are on our way back. The signs are very clear,” 

(Inputs from Cricket365)