By Petra Williams for
Spectator Sports

When Chris Dehring, Chief Executive Officer of Cricket West Indies, told Andrew Mason on the Mason & Guest Show, “I’m not going to Jamaica. I’m home in Antigua,” it sounded light, almost playful. But it came amid one of the most serious public conversations yet about the future of West Indies cricket.

This was not small talk. It was a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, money, and whether the Caribbean’s greatest sporting institution can survive a world of franchise leagues, shrinking television audiences, and unequal global economics. That is why his declaration of “home” mattered.

Mason had asked casually, “Chrissy, you going home for Christmas?”
“Yes,” Dehring replied.
Mason, “Oh, Jamaica?”
In reply, Dehring said, “No. I’m home in Antigua.”

Then he explained why. 

His relationship with Antigua and Barbuda goes back more than three decades. He first arrived at 17 as an Under-19 footballer in a CFU competition, fell in love with the country, returned annually for major cultural events, and later came professionally to help build Cricket West Indies’ commercial arm.

Now, as CEO, he has made a deliberate choice. Dehring stated, “I’ve dedicated myself to West Indies cricket. The headquarters are here. It’s home.”

In a time of upheaval for the game, that grounding matters.

During the conversation, Dehring addressed perhaps the harshest reality of all for Cricket West Indies: limited financial resources.

The Caribbean, he explained, has never had a domestic television market of scale. Six million people spread across fifteen countries simply cannot generate the broadcast revenues that sustain cricket in India, England, or Australia.

That leaves West Indies cricket dependent on international tours, overseas broadcast sales, and ICC distributions.

And those distributions, Dehring said, remain fundamentally unfair, given both the historic contribution of West Indies cricket to the global game and the unique challenges of a small, multi-island region.

He indicated that Cricket West Indies will continue lobbying but is also preparing a formal submission to the ICC to press the case for reform, warning that the current imbalance threatens not just the Caribbean, but the future of world cricket itself.

As an example of how CWI is trying to adapt, Dehring pointed to the Mission India: Corporate Engagement Tour, a creative financing initiative launched earlier this year. The delegation, which included Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Richard Richardson, Brian Lara, Chief Commercial Officer Rupert Hunter, and Dehring himself, focused on establishing new relationships to secure sponsorship and broadcast opportunities during the West Indies tour of India.

Dehring explained that these financial pressures are being compounded by deeper structural changes in world cricket.

At the last ICC meeting, he said, new ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta made it clear that global cricket is being re-engineered. Franchise leagues are rising. ICC tournaments are expanding. And traditional bilateral series, once the backbone of international cricket, are losing both fans and television value.

As a result, broadcast revenues for bilateral tours are being eroded, especially for boards like Cricket West Indies that rely on those rights. “There is going to be a restructuring of world cricket,” Dehring said. “Nobody knows exactly where it will end up. But we have to be flexible enough to take advantage where we can, and survive where we have to.”

For West Indies cricket, that means meeting its Future Tours Programme obligations while finding new ways to remain financially viable in a rapidly changing sport.

Leadership That Has Not Stepped Away

One of the more sensitive issues raised during the interview was the continued role of CWI President Dr. Kishore Shallow, now also serving as Minister of Tourism in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Dehring did not dodge the question.

He reminded listeners that West Indies cricket presidents have always been busy people. Many past presidents, he noted, were senior professionals, including top corporate lawyers and executives, who held demanding full-time careers while also serving as the regional board leader.

That is because the presidency, he explained, is not about running daily operations. “Serving on boards is a volunteer role,” Dehring said. “You are not running the day-to-day business. That is the job of the executive and management.”

What matters is engagement. And on that, he was firm. Shallow, he said, remains deeply committed to West Indies cricket and continues to make time for the organisation despite the demands of public office.

“He was just here a couple of days ago,” Dehring revealed. “We had meetings in Antigua, planning what we are doing. He took the time to come.”

For West Indies cricket, that continuity at the top provides stability at a moment when the game needs it most.

Why Home Matters

And that is why Dehring being “home in Antigua” is not just a sentimental detail.

It means that one of the most critical voices in world cricket resides where the home of Cricket West Indies is,  making decisions from the base. Directly connected to the pressures, the expectations, and the stakes that come with representing a region that gave so much to the game.

In a moment when West Indies cricket must reinvent itself without losing its soul, that kind of rooted leadership matters.

So when Chris Dehring says Antigua is home, he is not just talking about where he will spend Christmas. He is talking about where the future of West Indies cricket is being fought for.