Cricket West Indies borrowed money to pay salary during Pandemic: CWI Prez Skerritt

Cricket West Indies, the governing body of cricket in the Caribbean islands will soon be undergoing fresh elections for the post of President. However, the incumbent President Ricky Skerritt has claimed that even when they had to borrow to pay the salary of staff and players in the pandemic, in his tenure the debts of the board have reduced to a third of what they were, two years ago when he took charge. 

"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," Skerritt was quoted as saying to Espncricinfo. 

Speaking about the problem of debt, Skerritt, 64, said that the board was running on future payments with all money all ready knowing its destinations before ut landed in the coffers of the board. 

"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,” said St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party affiliate. 

"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,” Skerritt added demonstrating the amount of progress the West Indies cricket management system has made during his tenure. 

In the election that is due for today, March 28, Guyana Cricket Board secretary Anand Sanasie is the main opposition to Skerritt.