Nine years ago, a health setback ended Stephen Camacho’s 18 years as secretary/chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Now, fit enough again, he is back in the post, albeit on an acting, presumably temporary, basis following the resignation of the fourth of his successors to have been overwhelmed by the job in the interim.
Dr Donald Peters’ not unexpected exit last week “for personal reasons” follows those of (in reverse order) Bruce Aanansen, Roger Brathwaite and Gregory Shillingford (now, pertinently, president of the Leeward Islands Association and a director of the same WICB that had dismissed him as its CEO).
The list excludes Roland Toppin, who quit even before he set foot in his office in St John’s, apparently realising what he was getting himself into and opting instead for the same position with the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) instead.
The WICB’s swift acceptance of Peters’ resignation, without so much as the token thank you for his services, indicates a certain relief at his decision.
The political complexities, the insularity and the poverty of West Indies cricket render the task of those employed to oversee its administration an intimidating challenge. The problem since Camacho has been exacerbated by choices made principally on the modern mantra that cricket is a business, basically ignoring the fact that it is, first and foremost, a sport.
It is a policy that leads to placing square pegs in round holes.
With his bewildering statements on statistical criteria for selection to the West Indies team, his off-hand attitude to the loss of sponsors and his proposal that teenagers should be precluded from the Test team, Peters typified the dilemma.
He has identified the expansion of the first-class tournament as one of the legacies of his short tenure but somehow managed to put a positive spin on Carib Beer’s withdrawal as sponsors with the confusing assertion that, because the WICB was now able to finance it on its own, it indicated that it is “a well-financed and well-run unit and is not being mismanaged”.
Peters’ position began to crumble when he was sent on technical leave, and corporate services manager Tony Deyal fired, last July following president Julian Hunte’s anger at media allegations over the funding of his office’s renovation in St. Lucia.
Hunte charged then that it was a “malicious campaign” intended to malign him and an attempt to “get rid” of him and a few others on the board.
Peters was subsequently reinstated but it was not difficult to read between the lines. Relations between the two had become untenable and it was surprising that they remained together for another nine months.
In that time, there were justifiable demands for both to resign over the costly loss in arbitration to the WICB’s main sponsors, Digicel, over Stanford 20/20 for US$20 million match and the equally expensive and embarrassing damage caused by the abandonment of the Antigua Test against England.
Hunte has remained unmoved, still head of an administration yet again in search of a chief executive for the sixth time in nine years.
In choosing the candidate – that is if anyone is still bold enough to apply – the board must place more emphasis on a proven background in sport and sport administration. Not least in times when West Indian cricketers are either millionaires or very wealthy men and contracts need to be air tight, the specialised area of sporting law is vital.
Nor can it be done in haste or limited to the West Indies although that would be an advantage.
The new man needs to be confident enough, strong enough and well qualified enough to demand that his work not be undermined by directors concerned only with the good of their own affiliate boards and not West Indies cricket as a whole, as it so obviously and increasingly is. The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) has just appointed a chief executive with credentials that might have attracted the WICB.
Don Lockerbie is an American who knows, and is well known, in West Indian cricket circles. He was the chief operating officer and venue development director of World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean where he managed the design and development of new stadiums constructed for the event.
Before that, his experience in administration included stints as executive and consultant to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000 and the FIFA football World Cup in the U.S. in 1998. He was an athlete himself, a middle-distance runner for the University of North Carolina, where he later became director of track and field, and for the New York Athletic Club.
Such experience and expertise do not come cheap but it is a combination entirely worth it. The chief executive is key to the success of any organization and, as West Indies cricket has come to know to its cost, vice-versa.
