Bassarath backs himself, Shallow for re-election

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

CRICKET WEST Indies (CWI) vice-president Azim Bassarath strongly believes that both he and president Dr Kishore Shallow have done more than enough to garner the support of the territorial boards at the upcoming elections.

While neither Bassarath nor Dr Shallow have confirmed whether they will seek re-election, Wednesday is the deadline for nominations ahead of the March 29 elections at CWI’s headquarters in Antigua.

Speaking during a recent interview on I95.5 FM, Bassarath said the track record of the current administration spoke for itself.

He said, if he and Dr Shallow contest the elections, he was confident they would be victorious, whether or not there were challengers.

They would both be seeking their second terms after being elected on March 25, 2023.

“Well, anything can happen between now and Wednesday. Yes, people maybe want to serve and there is nothing wrong with people putting up their name. It is a democratic organisation.

“I don’t foresee challengers, but, if there are challengers, and if we decide to put up our names, it doesn’t matter to us really if challengers do come forward,” Bassarath said.

“I think that if I and Dr Shallow, if we decide to go, then both of us are going to be victorious at the polls.”

Bassarath maintained both he and Dr Shallow had accomplished much during their two years in office.

“It is there to be seen. When we took over in 2023, we were languishing in about eighth or ninth in the T20 rankings, and we have moved up, and, at one stage, we were third on the ICC ratings and now we are fourth in the T20.

“… The ODIs we did pretty well. We would not have won as much series as we would have liked, and, in the Tests, we would have drawn the last series against Pakistan, drawn the series with Bangladesh and, in 2023 when we played against England, we would have won that series/ So I think we would have done pretty well in the Test match arena,” Bassarath said.