An anatomy of a cricket crisis

These problems did not begin now, or with Brian Charles Lara, Dinanath Ramnarine, Teddy Griffith and Roger Braithwaite.

Let’s go back to the past.

West Indies cricket was built around icons. Icons that were, for the most part, larger than life, more powerful than the administrators, untouchables. They only respected other iconic figures and dictated their own terms.

The success of the team was based on the number of iconic figures that could be assembled in the dressing room on any given day. Discipline was derived from within.

There was no succession planning, no code of behaviour, no development and training programmes, no performance targets or appraisal system and no compensation philosophy. Each of these gaps returned to haunt West Indies cricket.

Mistake No 1

The West Indies public hailed Brian Lara as a "King" thus bestowing on him "iconic" status along lines similar to many of the stars of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. This status was fuelled by the media and the WICB, who saw this, among other things, as an opportunity to increase revenues. Regrettably for the administrators, they failed to grasp that being an icon, brought with it certain perceived rights. By the time they grasped this, it was too late to correct. With no succession plan in place, the bargaining power of the icon became even greater. And no man is an island in any sport, because he will retire and the sport will live on. A sport must not be held to ransom by people. In this case both Dinanath Ramnarine and Teddy Griffith have to look in the mirror and question in whose best interests were they acting. Roger Braithwaite may have only been following instructions, but there are times when some orders have to be questioned before implementation.

Mistake No 2

There is an absence of a clear determination of whether the West Indies players are "employees" of the WICB or "independent contractors". The rights and responsibilities of each individual would vary depending on the answer to that issue.

In practice, it appears that the more accomplished players and icon(s) are (or certainly view themselves as) "independent contractors" while the other players are (or certainly view themselves as) "employees".

The co-existence and equal treatment of these two classes of labour was and is not sustainable.

Mistake No 3

There is no real accountability at any level of West Indies cricket. The Board, the selectors and the team are not held accountable for performance. Are individual targets established for players? Is compensation linked to achievement of those individual and team targets? Is an incentive programme in place for excellent performance? Are market surveys undertaken to determine the compensation levels of players in teams of a comparative level? If, as suspected, the answers to the above are generally no, only after these are implemented will we see tangible progress in West Indies cricket.

Even the practice of "dropping" players from one series or Test match to the other is not good human resource management.

Mistake No 4

The organisation and management structure of West Indies cricket is inadequate to meet the current needs and to force West Indies cricket to become competitive again. We need professionals at all levels, not just on the cricket field. If we examine the territorial cricket boards, we will notice there is a weakness of quality personnel across the board.

The Way Forward

The leadership in West Indies cricket appears to believe that "if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again". While this approach worked in the 20th century, what is required to succeed in the 21st century is a willingness to re-engineer West Indies cricket.

And to do this, we need to revisit the raison d’etre for a West Indies team in the first place. Assuming that we continue to need one team to represent the West Indies (a major assumption), a new re-engineered approach to West Indies cricket could look like the following:

Replace WICB with West Indies Cricket Incorporated (WICI); start up ownership of WICI by regional government but under Articles of Incorporation which call for the disposal of all shares by the original shareholders within 12 months; listing of WICI on regional Stock Exchanges (major institutional investors could be identified beforehand Digicel, etc); a Board of Directors will be established responsible for appointing the Executive Management of WICI and overseeing the fortunes of the company; all cricketers become employees of WICI; WIPA will be formally recognised as the bargaining unit for West Indies cricketers and a formal collective bargaining agreement entered into with WIPA for three year period; the Board, management and players will be held accountable for the performance of the company.

Targets, performance incentives, stock options, etc will be established and enforced for management and players.

Finally the impending selection of Ken Gordon as president will only be of benefit, if we can cause both a change of thinking and trust to develop between both the West Indies Players Association and the West Indies Cricket Board.

At the moment both parties through their various media connections are attempting to paint only one side of the story. Change is needed, let us all hope it is not imaginary, but real.

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