Australia defeats West Indies in third test match, Shallow Points to Infrastructure Failures Following West Indies’ Second-Lowest Test Score in History
The West Indies cricket team’s catastrophic collapse to just 27 runs against Australia in Kingston has sparked a war of words, with Cricket West Indies President Kishore Shallow placing blame squarely on CARICOM governments for failing to invest in cricket infrastructure.
Speaking on BOOM 106.9 FM following Monday’s humiliating defeat, Shallow didn’t mince words about what he sees as systemic failures across the region. “CARICOM governments, including St. Vincent and others, are simply not building out the necessary infrastructure to produce the next generation of West Indies cricketers,” he declared, though he notably praised St. Lucia for its commitment to cricket development.
The numbers tell a story of complete batting collapse that will haunt West Indies cricket for generations. Mitchell Starc’s devastating six-wicket haul helped bowl out the home team for just 27 runs – a score so low it ranks as the second-worst in Test cricket’s 147-year history.
To put this in perspective, you’d have to travel back to 1955 to find a more abject batting performance, when New Zealand managed just 26 against England at Eden Park. These remain the only two instances of teams failing to reach 30 runs in a Test match.
The timing of this disaster couldn’t be more pointed for Shallow, who won the CWI presidency in 2023 on a platform of transformation. His “Pushing the Boundaries” manifesto promised a “necessary paradigm shift” in attitude, commitment, and actions across all stakeholders.
The manifesto outlined four key pillars for improvement: cricket development, human capital, commercial and marketing, and governance. Yet Monday’s performance suggests the gap between vision and reality remains vast.
Former West Indies all-rounder Carl Hooper didn’t hold back in his assessment, calling for heads to roll at Cricket West Indies headquarters. “Cricket West Indies, I really think a few heads should roll for this because they’ve made some decisions, and this is the result of those decisions,” a visibly dismayed Hooper told ABC Sport.
The Test veteran, who represented the West Indies between 1987 and 2002, was particularly critical of recent organizational changes. “They’ve made some wholesale changes, massive changes, that I think weren’t needed. To make wholesale changes and then get results like this, Cricket West Indies have got to hold up their hands and be held accountable.”
This defeat represents more than just a bad day at the office – it’s a symptom of deeper structural problems that have plagued Caribbean cricket for over a decade. The region that once produced legends like Viv Richards, Brian Lara, and Garfield Sobers now struggles to compete with cricket’s elite nations.
The blame game between cricket administrators and government officials highlights the fractured nature of cricket governance in the region, where success requires coordination between multiple stakeholders across different nations.
