Future of West Indies academy in doubt

As if West Indies cricket is not beset by enough sponsorship problems already, there is now growing concern for the future of the Grenada-based West Indies Cricket Academy, which has been instrumental in developing the careers of such players as Ryan Hinds, Carlton Baugh, and Fidel Edwards, but now faces closure because of a funding shortfall.

Last year the multinational oil giants, Shell, decided to terminate their sponsorship of the academy, which is based at the St George's University in South-West Grenada. The academy had been regarded as one of the few remaining success stories in West Indian cricket, with an annual three-month programme that was designed to produce a more rounded cricketer in terms of technique, fitness, personal development (including literacy, media and money management) and mental skills.

Now, however, the programme is in strife, and the Academy co-ordinator, Rudi Webster, is at a loss as to whether it has a future at all. "We have got a contract with the [West Indies] board until the end of 2005," Webster said in an interview with CMC Sport, "but ... we haven't had anything in writing from them whether the Academy is going to continue or not."

Webster, a former team manager and psychologist with the senior squad, told the Trinidad Express that his team was ready to take the next batch of students. "I hope some time soon, somebody will take up a pen and paper or send us some correspondence saying that the Academy is on or the Academy is off. We are prepared to start if they want to continue, if they don't want to continue we are happy with that too."