Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Friday announced the appointment of former international cricketer Miles Bascombe as the new Director of Cricket on a three-year contract.
In a decision taken at a Board of Directors meeting at the Coolidge Cricket Ground in Antigua, Bascombe will take over as Director of Cricket from Jimmy Adams, who had been in the role for the past six years, adding that Graeme West will act as the interim Director of Cricket until Bascombe takes up his new role from August 1.
The change in director of cricket role comes at a time when West Indies hopes of qualifying for Men’s ODI World Cup in India are left hanging by a slim thread in the ongoing qualifiers tournament in Zimbabwe, apart from not making Super 12 of Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year.
“West Indies Cricket is at a critical stage with an urgent need to improve performances. We have made significant progress with establishing a central High-Performance system that now needs to be rolled out across all of our Territories.
I am looking forward to working as a member of the CWI senior leadership team and closely with the Territorial Boards to bring about the necessary improvements that I am confident will lead to more success by implementing a robust system based on achieving world-class standards and by driving a winning culture,” said Bascombe in a statement.
The 37-year old Bascombe played one T20 International for the West Indies in 2011 and played first-class cricket between 2007 and 2017, for both the Windward Islands and the Combined Campuses and Colleges. He is a graduate of the University of the West Indies with both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and is a certified coach.
Bascombe, who was a CWI Men’s Selector between 2019 and 2021, has been the Technical Director at the Windward Islands Cricket Board over the last two years. Under his technical leadership, there have been a remarkable turnaround of fortunes for both male and female cricket across different levels, including an unbeaten first-class season in 2023.
“Following a thorough recruitment process, Miles stood out to the panel with his skills, experience and intimate knowledge of our cricket system, especially at Territorial Board level. His passion and understanding of the game at all levels are outstanding.
He is a critical thinker with a strong analytical and strategic mindset, which will be hugely beneficial to us as we embark on formulating our new 4-year strategic plan. I have no doubt he will hit the ground running and will relish the challenge before us to develop higher standards and better structures within our cricket system,” said Johnny Grave, CWI Chief Executive Officer.
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