Across the Board: To a prosperous 2001

The following greetings have been sent to the West Indies cricket team-via team manager Ricky Skerritt-by the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) chief executive officer Gregory Shillingford.

Dear Ricky,

Please read the following to the team and staff at your next meeting.

I would like to extend my personal greetings and that of the WICB for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each and every player and staff member of the West Indies cricket team in Australia. I understand that the families of some players and staff have joined them and my greetings go out to them also.

I also extend my appreciation for the hard work put in by everyone during the course of the year in the representation of West Indian cricket.

It has been a year of mixed results for our cricket and for players' personal performances which have been punctuated by the joys of winning and individual success and the agony of defeat and personal failure.

As professionals in business and in sport, we have learnt that we have to take the good with the bad, success with failure, the positives with the negatives. As we have realised this, we have and will continue to hold our heads high as West Indians, conscious that we make a significant contribution to the spirit of world cricket and the entertainment industry.

You are distinguished to have among you the scorer of the highest Test innings and the leading Test wicket-taker in world cricket and we have just only surrendered the record for consecutive Test victories after 20 years of dominating world cricket.

As we close this year and prepare to open a new one, we must be mindful that our cricket, which is at the crossroads of a future that is our responsibility, is not further depreciated.

Beyond the boundary, we are planning to raise the spectacle of our domestic regional cricket by amending rules relating to bouncers to create greater aggression both in our bowling and our batting. We are also providing substantial incentives for superlative individual and team performances in our Busta Cricket Series which starts on January 5. We have embarked on a bold initiative for the same Busta Series by "raising the bar" with the inclusion of England "A" and a West Indies "B" team. Judging from early responses, the other International Cricket Council member countries are all keen to participate in our cricket at this level in the future.

Administratively, we are about to embark on a programme of organisational restructuring which will see the employment of additional professional staff to provide dedicated services in the areas of cricket operations, development, communications and administration.

The objective is to deliver greatly improved and efficient services for the development and promotion of West Indian cricket which culminates in your performance on the field.

We will host a visit by South Africa starting from March 1, 2001, in a series that will encompass five Test matches and seven One-Day Internationals. While our success has been a lot more favourable at home, I would urge you to begin to prepare both mentally and technically for the future so that our fortunes, both at home and away result in similar success.

The board and myself are committed to providing you with the resources required to effect the standards of performance that will bring joy, satisfaction and pleasure to yourselves and the West Indian people whom you represent and which will uphold the West Indian traditions and expectations that you must fulfil.

In ending, I will quote from the words of a famous West Indian from Martinique, Franz Fanon: "Each generation, out of relative obscurity, must fulfil its mission or betray it."

My warmest and best wishes as you go forward in fulfilling your missions.

-Gregory Shillingford, CEO