As it has turned out, Cricket West Indies (CWI) cost-cutting exercise earlier this year, which included sharp reduction in the regional four-day tournament, was just the start.

Now, Caribbean people have been told by CWI that in addition to maintaining those cuts, retainer contracts for regional domestic and international players will be slashed.

Also, this year’s men’s and women’s Super50 tournaments and women’s T20 Blaze are off.

A sombre-faced Mr Chris Dehring, the CWI’s chief executive officer, declared in a statement aired on the regional body’s YouTube channel that West Indies cricket, as currently structured, is unsustainable and “at an important crossroads”.

Small size, limited resource base, “inequities” of the cricket world’s financial distribution system, inadequate facilities, etc, necessitate drastic change in approach to building the regional game, he said.

For those who closely follow West Indies cricket, Mr Dehring’s revelation that “over US$80 million has been spent by CWI with domestic airlines over the past 15 years without a reciprocating dollar of sponsorship …” shouldn’t come as a shock.

Nonetheless it is sobering in the extreme — an ice bath of sorts.

We are told that impoverished CWI “must deal with the immediate cash crunch brought about by years of bearing this burden and the crippling financial losses …”

A US$16 million loan to CWI by the global governing body, International Cricket Council (ICC), is intended to provide cash-flow relief. However, it comes with tough conditionalities.

We gather from Mr Dehring that the players’ union, the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), are agreeable to the cuts affecting them. We wait to hear from them.

It’s important to note that the embrace of fast, popular T20 cricket by the Olympic movement is proving opportune for cost-cutting.

Mr Dehring tells us that CWI will be “reshaping our domestic season to incorporate the new elements of Pan Am Games and Olympic qualification” as individual territories — bearing their own costs — vie for places at the hemispheric and global events.

That aspect needs watching in the context of the unique, grand project that is West Indies cricket involving sovereign nations, stretching from the northern Caribbean to Guyana in South America.

At an informal level, the idea of West Indies cricket with teams representing the region dates back to the 1880s during British colonial rule.

That arrangement became formal with the regional governing body joining the global, then Imperial Cricket Conference, 100 years ago.

In theory at least, the interests of individual cricket-playing territories within the unified West Indies is secondary to the whole.

However, against a backdrop of much-reduced public loyalty to the regional team because of far-too-frequent disappointing on-field results, how will this quest for Olympic cricket glory by individual territories affect the whole?

And all of this is in the context of T20 cricket, with traditional formats seemingly receding.

Crucially, as we have said down the years, West Indies teams need to start winning far more consistently than is now the case for the prized regional project to survive.

Ideally, success will trigger even more success, attracting a widening fan base and sponsors of all sorts.

For that to happen, innovative youth development programmes involving “first world, hi-tech” methodologies — as described by Mr Dehring — part-funded by savings, must rapidly bear fruit by way of exciting, emerging talent.

Without doubt, West Indies cricket is at a crucial crossroads.