London: Cricket West Indies President Ricky Skerritt, who’s aiming to be re-elected after a two-year time period, has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to borrow money to pay gamers and employees wages however the board’s debt has decreased to a 3rd in his tenure. Skeritt shall be combating for reelection towards Guyana Cricket Board secretary Anand Sanasie.
Talking in regards to the state of CWI funds, Skerritt stated they’ve improved considerably since he took over. “The biggest problem we were facing is that all of our future cash was spoken for before we even got it. We were living on borrowed future income. So, we had close to USD 20 million in institutional debt. And we were borrowing to pay back lenders. It was all smoke and mirrors. And that’s understandable on short-term strategies when there are difficult times for cash flow. But it had become endemic,” Skerritt advised ‘ESPNcricinfo‘.
The CWI boss went on to say that the board had to borrow to pay employees which obtained a 50 per cent pay lower within the wake of the pandemic. “So we’ve been having to tighten belts, focus on cash rather than on profit and loss and get rid of any sort of unnecessary costs. And we’ve cut our debt down by at least a third now after less than two years. And, with some difficulty, we have improved our ability to meet our obligations, we just could not meet most of our obligations (previously).”
“We were borrowing money to pay wages. We did that for the first year that I was in office. Right up until the early summer last year we were literally having to borrow to just pay players and staff,” he stated.
The West Indies crew was first to tour amid the pandemic, flying to England for a Test collection in July final yr.
On the impression of the well being disaster on the sport, Skerritt added: “The pandemic made every part extra devastating. But it additionally gave us a possibility and an excuse to concentrate on what we actually wanted to concentrate on…Getting all stakeholders to perceive that it will take sacrifices from all of us, together with a 50 per cent pay lower for everyone.
“The pandemic forced us to do more with even less. And I think that, in the final analysis, we’re going to come out of the pandemic more informed and better aware of what’s needed going forward.”
