Sweeping proposals by the Caricom Cricket Review Panel for a revamping of the governance of the game in the region will undoubtedly resonate with the millions of West Indian fans both here and in the diaspora who have wallowed in despair for too long over the fortunes of their team. They are desperately looking for upliftment and while there is no guarantee that the Panel’s prescriptions will bring about the sea-change they are seeking there is no other prospect on the horizon.
Immediate dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its replacement by an interim board forms a part of this cri de coeur delivered by the panel, appointed by the Caricom Prime Ministerial Committee on Governance, to Caricom. The urgency of its appeal and the earth-shaking nature of its recommendations immediately exposed the recalcitrant, leaden-footed WICB. The Caribbean Media Corporation reported on Wednesday that when Grenadian Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, who is the Chairman of the Caricom Cricket Governance Committee, called for an urgent meeting with the WICB on the proposals he was told by its President Mr Dave Cameron that a scheduled December 12th meeting – more than a month away – would be used for this purpose. Mr Cameron’s response is both disrespectful of a request by the prime ministerial committee and callously dismissive of the dire state of the game in the region and the need for immediate steps. One would have thought that Mr Cameron and his team would have relished the opportunity to bat first on this self-laid pitch. What he is clearly aware of is that his weak batting line up is at risk of being skittled by the steeds of a fearsome Windies pace quartet. Undoubtedly there will be a reckoning before December 12.
The findings of the review panel are the third by distinguished West Indian personages in less than a decade, each homing in on the glaring deficiencies of an outdated management structure, the decision-making failures driven by insularities of space and mind and the yawning chasm between the public’s expectations of performance by players with what has actually been achieved. While the Patterson and Wilkin reports have been crudely shelved and dishonoured by neglect, the West Indian public cannot afford to allow this Panel’s report to suffer the identical fate. Thankfully, the mood among Caricom Heads appears to be one of steely determination to do their bit to elevate the spirits of the people and to begin trying to put right what has gone terribly wrong with a sport that has knitted so many millions together through shared experiences; a game that above all else allowed the region to punch many classes above its weight.
The Panel headed by Eudine Barriteau and comprising of Sir Dennis Byron, Dwain Gill, the venerable former West Indies keeper Deryck Murray and Warren Smith restate many of the concerns that have been raised in the past and presents its take on the way forward. The key element is the dissolving of the WICB which must now face the stark truth that it has to exit the stage to permit rejuvenation.
Given its corporate identity and its moated status by virtue of its relations with the International Cricket Council (ICC), it is left to be seen how the WICB reacts to the findings of the Panel’s report. Will it accept the findings and begin the process for an orderly transition or will it seek to test the patience of Caricom and risk the withdrawal of regional support from WICB events? It will be a battle of wills depending on whether Mr Cameron and his colleagues decide to resist.
What is there to resist? The Panel’s report enumerates the cold hard truth about the West Indies’ standing in the game today, the seemingly unending reversal of fortunes and the stagnation in governance.
“…the governance of West Indies cricket has failed to evolve in a manner which accords with the exigencies of the modern game, but continues to be governed by a structure that is not reflective of the transformation of the game elsewhere. This is especially evident in relation to the requirements of the player-coaching community, stakeholder investors, and the expectations of the Caribbean cricketing public”, the Panel stated.
Alighting on the gravamen of the matter, the panel noted that all of its other recommendations are reliant on the acceptance of the dissolution of the WICB and the appointment of an interim body.
“Historically, and for too long, challenges with the management and governance of West Indies Cricket have been approached as an issue primarily of the quality of the leadership. Instead, it is the Panel’s view that the existing governance mechanisms do not provide an appropriate environment and framework to address the changes and challenges within the game of cricket, and the business of cricket”, the Panel stated.
It added that “The panel’s conclusion that the governance system of West Indian cricket has outlived its capacity to effectively deliver the game and manage the business of cricket, is borne out by the state and status of West Indies Cricket. West Indies Cricket is in a state of disarray and the men’s team occupies a low ranking status”.
The Panel adverted to the utterly devastating truth that at 9th position the West Indies were unable to qualify for the one-day Champions Trophy in 2017, the first time the team has failed to make the grade for any ICC tourney. On the management side it pointed to what it said was the long history of fractious and problematic relations between the WICB and its players and recently exemplified by the embarrassing termination of an Indian tour following a mutiny and the recent suspension of coach, Phil Simmons.
Territorial boards have also been infected by the rot that has set in at the WICB. The Panel asserted that constitutions, schedules of meetings, audited financial statements, accountability, transparency and operational practices mirror concerns voiced about the WICB. This has indeed been the case with the Guyana Cricket Board, a situation which the new government, as the old, seems unwilling to address by insisting on fair and verifiable elections.
In the coup de grace, the Panel refers to the seminal Supreme Court of India judgment of January 22, 2015 in a case involving the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) on the matter of cricket as a public good. That judgment said that “any organisation or entity that has such pervasive control over the game and its affairs as can make dreams end up in smoke or come true cannot be said to be undertaking any private activity. The functions of the Board (BCCI) are clearly public functions which … remain in the nature of public functions, no matter discharged by a society registered under the Registration of Societies Act.”
This judgment forms an appropriate precedent for the way forward with the WICB. For the avid West Indian fan, cricket is inseparable from the identity burnished through the game’s triumphs and tribulations in the colonial period, the struggle for independence, the conflict of class and self-identification and the birthing of new nations. In this vast expanse of time, legends of the games Sobers, Kanhai, Worrell, Hall, Headley, Lloyd and a multitude of others have seared in the West Indian psyche the reality that we are world beaters and champions and this in turn has given the peoples of these parts confidence in who they are and what is achievable. It is this ethos and spirt that the West Indies and its people have been trying to rekindle for the last two decades with disappointing results. The legacy of West Indian cricket dwarfs the dissent of any rival pretender, particularly the WICB.
