Dear Editor,
The Minister of Sport must concern himself with the future of cricket in Guyana – not with the impact changes will have on the sport today. The cricketers who will be part of any tournament in 2012 have identified themselves and if they are worth their mettle in gold, they will perform. Or perish. Reds Perreira means well but the Minister must know and do what is best for our cricket – today, for benefit tomorrow.
Further it is time our politicians tell those who “control” cricket in the Caribbean and further afield than these organisations, that the administration of cricket in Guyana is needful of complete overhaul and that what is being done is in the best interest of cricket – our cricket.
People who serve in world bodies of cricket come and go their way – our political leaders are there for at least 10 years, and these individuals and bodies must not be allowed to dictate day in and day out to our Government – it is the Government of Guyana which must give direction to this sport.
One only has to look at football and see in this sport, governance is in disrepute and disarray. This is what is in store for cricket if Government through its Minister does not intervene, now.
Enough is enough! We need a truly National Administration. There are too many factions, and Court battles are fought to bring some semblance of sanity to Mad Executives and Boardrooms.
It is time to take the bull by the horns and – Put the Maddening Crowd to pasture and begin anew – Bravo Cde. Minister!!
Clive Hubert Lloyd is respected throughout the cricketing world; he has played the game, captained the game and managed the game. He has the experience. He has the skills, as a player, manager and organiser. He can organise and administrate. He is willing. Let him do his job –unhindered. Cricket can only gain and improve under his stewardship. Let the wet blankets shut up and cooperate with the great man. Give him a chance – to fail at least.
It goes without saying that the Minister of Sport is on the right track as it is prudent for him to involve and place at the helm of our cricket one of our great heroes, one of our great leaders, one of the world’s most successful cricket captains – Clive Hubert Lloyd.
The problem with our cricket is not our cricketers but lies with our administrators at the National and Regional levels. This is not peculiar to Guyana but can be seen from the way the West Indian Cricket Board conducts its business.
The problem is not on the playing fields, but in our Boardrooms and Clubrooms.
Cricket must be managed by cricketers not Corporate and Business Executives because they have successful businesses or are corporate magnates.
The problem with the cricket is not cricket, but its organisation and administration. Those who vie for positions on Boards do not yet understand what is organisation or administration and how different each is. Great and glorious plans can be made in Boardrooms by rooms full of PhDs.
But those plans must be translated into success, not in rooms, but on the club grounds of play – they must be implemented.
Implementation calls for another breed of men – those who play and have played the game, like the Lloyds, Kanhais and Crofts. This cannot be done by the commentators on cricket – the stalwarts of the game must be given the opportunity to do so after their playing days are over and done with.
It is noticeable that mediocre administration produces mediocre cricketers and there is an abundance of both. The one shining light perhaps, Tagenarine Chanderpaul among the whole lot.
That is what the millions have produced, one player of potential calibre. Where in the Corporate empire of beer and rum, sugar and rice, communications and information, bauxite and gold are our great cricketers/corporate magnates – the Lloyds, the Kanhais, the Soberses, the Richardses and Holdings?
Would big businesses entrust the future of Corporate power to the likes of a Solomon, a Butcher or a Baichan? Even a Kanhai, a Kallicharran or a Lloyd? Are they invited to sit on these Boards?
The Minister has put his finger on the problem – Management; hence the Interim Management Council. There are too many administrators in cricket, too many with ideas and opinions, too many with money who make their way into Cricket’s administration. It is good to have them along for obvious reasons, they control money and sponsorship. They should not be put in charge of the sport of cricket.
How the Guyana Cricket Board is elected and selected must be overhauled.
1. The president and secretary of the GCB must be former test cricketers.
2. The posts should be filled as a result of advertisement.
3. The posts should be paid ones.
4. The incumbent should serve no more than two consecutive terms of five years each (ten years are enough to make an impact).
Those who played cricket in the fifties and sixties will tell you that they played cricket as a sixteen or seventeen year old in primary school. That today a boy leaves primary school and in secondary school, his interests are elsewhere, not on cricket.
That in the fifties and sixties cricket was played on well-tended community centre and sugar estate grounds, with senior players guiding youngsters; with organisers like Clyde Walcott who guided players into national players; the cost being borne by sugar to support the sport. In the fifties and sixties, talent was spoken for and molded – Kanhai, Butcher, Solomon and Madray. Cricketers were bred for the sport – today they are hatched in incubators like chicken.
Cricketers are silent victims of those who manipulate the sport for gain – see Chris Gayle – they are people not puppets. So too our Minister of Sport must not be the puppet of the WICB or the ICC.
He must show his mettle. He must show that he can master this situation and prevail over the odds. He has been at it long enough.
The minister needs to address his mind to the facts: That too much money is expended on competitive cricket; That too little money or effort is expended to spot and to develop talented cricketers (Tagenarine Chanderpaul).Where is our Cricket Academy?
We have many glorious boards but no Academy – and many mediocre players, mediocre managers produce mediocre players. The former players are living far afield; that they are not here employed by the Ministry of Sport to travel the country and spot talent and then give such talent the benefit of their knowledge in our Cricket Academy. That each day’s newspapers abound with photographs of a million sponsors who can fund such an Academy. That it is not how many thousands of boys who hit a ball with a piece of wood – but just the fourteen we need for a Regional or World ranking team.
Bravo Clive Lloyd! Move the mountain cat! Level the plains and dredge the streams. Let talent reign and experience rule the day!
Yours faithfully,
Doreen Prasad-Rajroop
