Those who keep an eye on West Indies cricket will have noted news over recent days of two key appointments.

We refer to the choice of Englishman Mr Johnny Grave as CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board replacing Jamaican Mr Michael Muirhead, and former Jamaica and West Indies cricket captain Mr James Adams as director of cricket replacing Englishman Mr Richard Pybus.

Very few in the Caribbean have much knowledge of Mr Grave, yet his CV suggests that the regional cricket set-up is fortunate to have his services at this time. At a time of continuing tension between West Indies players and administrators, Mr Grave comes with nine years’ experience as commercial director of the Professional Cricketers’ Association in Britain.

Those of us at a distance will feel his previous job gives him a distinct advantage in the drive to soothe hurt and disaffection among players in particular.

As a player Mr Adams built a reputation as a focused, determined and very hard worker. When he made his first-class debut representing Jamaica as a teenager in the mid-1980s, there were those who considered him less talented than a few of his local contemporaries.

Yet such was Mr Adams’ work ethic and will to succeed, that he outstripped all others on the Jamaican scene to become a leading West Indies batsman of the 1990s. Batting apart, Mr Adams’ left-arm spin was always valuable and he pushed himself to also become a reliable wicketkeeper.

The signs of decline in the great West Indies team of the time were already evident when Mr Adams made his Test match debut in 1992, yet the swagger born of many years of conquest remained.

Over the next decade, until his exit from international cricket, Mr Adams watched at first-hand the painful fall of the West Indies to the lower rungs of world cricket. He would also have seen at close quarters clumsy, backward, unprofessional administrative practices which have led over time to calls for radical restructuring of West Indies cricket.

In other words, Mr Adams needs no one to tell him that the regional game is in trouble and needs meticulous, focused and sensible leadership going forward. We are also quite certain that he has his own fleshed-out ideas about how to carry the game forward. Indeed, that may well explain the decision of the WICB to offer him the job as director of all cricket programmes, since, as we understand it, his initial application was for the task as head coach of the regional team.

We feel certain that careful planning and hard work will be central to the programme with Mr Adams as director of cricket.

Usually calm, thoughtful and mild-mannered, Mr Adams is unlikely to fall victim to lack of diplomacy — a weakness which has undermined others. Yet his demeanour should never be misinterpreted as weakness. Those who know Mr Adams well are aware that he is intolerant of slackness, foolishness and unprofessional behaviour.

For the greater good of West Indies cricket, it will be very important that Messrs Grave and Adams, as well as a head coach, yet to be named, make the very best of the difficult challenges ahead.