St Lucian Ernest Hilaire is the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).
Hilaire, is the fifth person to hold the post in the last nine years following Gregory Shillingford, Roger Brathwaite, Bruce Aanensen and Dr. Donald Peters, who walked away from the post in July this year.
Hilaire, whose appointment became effective October 1 this year, took office in the midst of a bitter dispute between his employers (the WICB) and the West Indies Players Association(WIPA).
He was tasked with the responsibility of tackling the crisis between the WICB and the WIPA and now that bitter dispute seems to be over Hilaire is now responsible for the executive functioning of the WICB and for the implementation of its programmes and activities.
He also has the unenviable task of trying to reshape and transform not only the image of the WICB but its operations.
In the following interview Hilaire raps with Stabroek Sports’ Rawle Toney on a number of issues affecting West Indies cricket.
Following is the interview.
RT: As CEO of Windies Cricket, are you at ease with the way cricket in the region is right now compared to the rest of the world?
EH: No! I think we can do a lot better than we have done. I think Trinidad and Tobago’s participation in the Champions League 20/20 and their own level of competitiveness show what is possible in the Caribbean.
I honestly think if we get all our arrangements right; if we get all the pieces netted together, we will be able once again to rise in the ranks of world cricket for the world to enjoy.
I think they are looking forward to the West Indies brand of cricket, but we need to get our house in order. The WICB has a major role to play in that regard and over the next few months you will see increased determination on our part to get things right so we can once again see the restoration of West Indies cricket to the levels that I expect it.
RT: Are you comfortable with the WIPA agreement, and also can you assure the public or the Caribbean that a fall out of that magnitude will never happen again?
EH: The thing about it is in any relationship there will always be challenges; there will always be difficulties and there will be successes. It’s very unfortunate that in the last two years, the relationship with our players’ association (WIPA) has probably been factored more by challenges and difficulties and disputes.
I cannot say to you that there will never be a dispute or challenge or difference between us, but what I am determined to allow to happen is for us to have those disagreements and challenges and to manage it so it can be structured and responsible.
We must not allow it to be spilled into the public domain and allow it to reach a level like it had reached. I can’t say that there will not be another crisis but I can say to you that the WICB is committed to developing a partnership that would not allow our difference to become public.
RT: What has the WICB put in place for cricket development, especially with some of premier players heading out of the game?
EH: During this year, this would be a major undertaking of the WICB, we are close to having a formal announcement and a launch of a high performance centre in Barbados. It is part of the hub of the WICB academic system, where you’ll have the high performance centre in Barbados and you’ll have the territorial academies, existing linking to the hub which is the high performance centre.
We believe by having nursery in the territorial boards, feeding the high performance system in Barbados, we’ll have a very good structure for the development of youth cricketers who can compete at the highest level.
The board has also taken a decision and is going to implement in the next few weeks the central retainer contracts and added to that the regional retainer contracts, so we’ll have a total of over 100 players who will have either a central retainer contract or a regional retainer contract just providing support to our players to be able to take care of basic cricketing expenses and demand, as well as keep them in cricket because they will be on contract and when we linked that with the academic system it will provide us on a more advance programme that we have had before.
RT: Could you spell the distinction between a regional contract and one which players like Chris Gayle and Sarwan would have?
EH: If you think of it, it’s almost like a higher fee. The top 15 players are the highest paid, they are the ones most likely to represent us at test, one day, 20/20, and they are our star players, you know the players of today who are representing the WI at the senior level.
Then you have the development players; players who seem to have particular potential and are very critical to the development of WI cricket and they operate at another level and then you have the regional retainer contracts for the players who primarily play first class cricket.
Some of them may move up to development, some may move to the top 15 but we’re saying, even those who are not in the top 15 or a developmental player, they should still get something to support them and to continue playing cricket cause we also need to build our first class structure more competitive and more quality players so in addition to those who play at the international level, are competitive at the first class level.
RT: How has the WICB been able to sustain itself in the global economic crisis?
EH:The funding of the WICB programmes comes primarily from two sources; the media rights revenue and we have an agreement which last until 2012, the duration of the President’s programme where the WICB will get a significant sum of money for the media rights, the broadcast of its matches during home tours.
There has also been primary sponsorship provided by Digicel and which also will end in 2012. Presently we don’t have sponsors for our regional tournaments and we are actively seeking sponsors.
And then we have the Scotia Bank sponsors, the TCL sponsors of our U-19 programme. You will see in the coming months, an effort to create new events that could bring in more revenue for the WICB to diversify the sources of talent in West Indies cricket as we are now going to have the academic regional contracts and so on, we need to have more monies to do so and therefore we have to broaden our sources of funding.
RT: There is tension in the air, looking at where we have come from over the last couple of months in West Indies cricket and with players all eager to wear the maroon cap, how difficult you think it would be for the selectors to come up with the best team possible for the Australian tour next month?
EH: I think the selectors have been given a task to select the best WI team and that’s what they have to do. I’m very sure that as selectors, they will use their judgment to select the best team and we expect the players like they have said, to put their best foot forward.
It’s not going to be an easy time for them I can say but we will be ensuring that the players you know, give their best shot, I also have no doubt in my mind that the selectors will do like in the past, select the team which they feel is the best West Indies team.
RT: The Caribbean is once again placed in the centre of the world as it relates to cricket with us hosting the ICC 20/20 World Cup next year, how has the WICB been coping so far that the event next year is nothing like the 2007 Cricket World Cup and also how well have you guys been able to deal with the relevant stakeholders in the region; hotels, airlines etc.?
EH: I think like everything else, the logistics of a tournament like that being a shorter version, teams moving more, there are plenty challenges for us. We are small islands, we need to play between islands whenever there is a movement of the teams but whatever may have been the disappointment with Cricket World Cup 2007, you know the ticket prices, the security requirements, we did very well in terms of our ticket management and generally how the tournament was organized.
But I am confident that the 20/20 World Cup next year in the Caribbean will be better organized than when we had the Cricket World Cup in 2007.
There is a new tournament director Robert Bryan who replaces me and he was before in 2007, the CEO of Cricket World Jamaica so he also has had the experience of 2007. He is an extremely talented person from the point of organization and even planning and he’s going to host the 2010, 20/20 World Cup with distinction.
