West Indies, well off the pace in both men’s and women’s international cricket in recent times, will now hope to benefit from what CWI has called a “groundbreaking, data-driven scouting system aimed at identifying and developing the best cricketing talent across the region”.
The system will involve senior talent managers, territorial talent identifiers, and a network of scouts combining “to provide a structured, analytical approach to talent identification”. With the West Indies Championship as their first major assignment, the scouting team will ensure that every performance is tracked, analysed, and reported, creating a clear pathway for emerging cricketers to progress to the highest levels.”
Former West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan heads the team of six territorial talent identifiers, looking after Guyana, with Henderson Broomes (Barbados), Delroy Morgan (Jamaica), Samuel Spencer (Leeward Islands), Gibran Mohammed (Trinidad & Tobago) and Craig Emmanuel (Windward Islands) for company. The senior talent managers are Jamal Smith (men’s cricket) and Ann Browne-John (women’s cricket), and with four regional scouts, they would be “managing senior player data, collaborating with analysts, and assisting in selection decisions”.
“We are moving beyond just relying on what we see on scorecards. This system ensures that performances are seen with context and with a focus on the skill sets displayed, tactical acumen and game awareness,” CWI director of cricket Miles Bascombe said. “We are collecting real-time data, analysing performances consistently, and making informed decisions about player development.”
The key responsibilities of the territorial talent identifiers are:
- Scouting and evaluation: attending matches and training sessions to assess players’ technical skills, physical attributes, and mental strength
- Reporting and analysis: compiling detailed scouting reports and maintaining player performance records
- Collaboration: working closely with coaches, selectors, and high-performance staff to refine the development pathway
“Players in the region will now be seen and evaluated by multiple talent identification operatives resulting in more information gathering, and better-balanced data on performances,” Bascombe said. “With this accountability metric in place, our network of scouts ensures that no talent goes unnoticed.
“We are moving into a new era of role-based, data-driven selection that will have ripple effects across our cricket system from the way players prepare to the way we measure performances. In addition, it allows us to examine deficits in players and to optimise through our high-performance framework. However, I would like to reiterate that data-driven does not only quate to stats-based, huge emphasis will be placed on qualitative data. Beyond selection, this data will be used to refine player programming ensuring a targeted approach to getting players international-ready.”
The latest edition of the first-class West Indies Championship is already one round old, but will run till April 2025 and take in 24 more matches featuring eight island teams: Barbados, Combined Campuses and Colleges, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies Academy and Windward Islands.
“The West Indies Championship is where we expect to see our next generation of Test cricketers emerge,” Bascombe said. “With this new system, we will have more eyes on players than ever before and clarity about what we are looking for. This ensures that selection methods are consistent over time and based on merit and data-backed insights.”
Both West Indies’ senior men’s and women’s have underperformed on the whole of late with only the rare bright spark – like the Shamar Joseph-inspired Test win over Australia in Brisbane in January 2024 and the recent win in spin-friendly Multan over Pakistan. The men finished one from the bottom in the latest cycle of the World Test Championship and have failed to qualify for the upcoming ODI Champions Trophy, to be played in Pakistan and the UAE. The women, too, have been well behind the top teams – less than a decade on from when they were T20 world champions – and are now outside the top five in both the ICC’s ODI and T20I team rankings.
