Full Text of Digicel Memo

Thu, Feb 17, '05

The following is the full text of an internal memo penned by Digicel group sponsorship manager Richard Nowell. It discusses problems between players and the sponsors during the VB one-day series in Australia.

Further to our meeting with the WICB and in light of issues surrounding the West Indies tour to Australia, detailed below are the numerous areas of concern.

The current situation is not only preventing the execution of Digicel's contractual rights with the WICB but also impacting on the credibility of Digicel. The foregoing does not make for pretty reading but you have asked for a very frank assessment of the tour.

The central issue is the unresolved C&W personal contracts. With the leading players, including the captain, allied to our competitor they were totally unwilling to be part of Digicel sponsorship activation.

Their seniority and power filtered through the other members of the team which in turn killed every proposed initiative.

The majority of the players are allied to WIPA and worryingly have no respect or relationship with their employers [WICB] and therefore Digicel.

As Digicel's representative in Australia and especially at the inception of a dynamic and positive sponsorship, I would have expected to be treated with courtesy and warmth. Instead, I feel alienated by many of the players. This alienation was in spite of arranging local SIM cards, bandsets and call credit for the squad.

A member did thank me, but I received not one word of appreciation when I arranged a team fitting for formal trousers.

The team, required to buy their own trousers, looked, along with cheap and ill-fitting blazers like a bunch of security guards. Hinds flatly refused to try on a pair. He simply snarled out his waist and leg size. When I asked the WI team management if the squad was happy (as I had not heard a word from anyone) I was told several were moaning about the style of the trousers.

Digicel Sponsors Rights: The tour presented the first opportunity for Digicel to exploit their rights. I targeted three basic areas;

* maximisation of press conferences
* Mobile content
* Sponsored player columns with press.

To further strengthen Digicel?s broadcast deal. I recruited a TV crew to feed back news to the Caribbean TV stations.

It was more cost effective for the crew to move with the team so to maximise their time, a "behind the scenes" filming initiative was discussed with the team management.

Sarah Gill and Pete Russell relayed my plans to WIPA on Sunday Jan 9, which was met positively. A sum of US $30,000 was offered, this would be shared among the squad in return for their input.

On hearing this, [Brian] Lara spoke to me: "Don?t point those cameras anywhere near me. I will wear your shirt on the pitch, but I am Cable and Wireless. You hear?"

The other C&W contracted players then followed suit. You could sense a number of players wanted to be involved but peer pressure prevented this.

The crew was treated with hostility, principally by the C&W contracted players even when it was explained they had reverted back to a news crew. On two occasions I had to persuade my cameramen form walking out on the job.

It was only when we arrived in Perth, the likely ending point of the tour had WICB and WIPA agreed that the players could be interviewed by the TV crew. By then, almost four weeks later, it was futile.

However, through persuasion four players agreed to the interviews. These took place in civilian clothes and not branded apparel. The players were Browne, Collins, King and Sarwan. In their defence, when they spoke, they spoke well.

If only this co-operation from the players and a sense of urgency, thought and direction from both boards had been shown from the start of the tour.

The "Behind the Scenes" initiative would have been the perfect platform to demonstrate to the frustrated public that there is a changing work ethic and they are all working for the future of West Indies cricket.

At the same time, I approached several of the non C&W players about "sponsored press columns" running weekly and simply requiring a 15-minute conversation with a journalist. This was blocked by WIPA even though a number of players repeatedly asked why.

Again, through the Digicel player fund decent sums of money [around US $300 per player] was offered for five columns.

Contractually, Digicel had the right to continue with these initiatives and deal direct with consenting players as WICB had failed to put agreed players appearance tariffs in place (22.6).

I did not enforce this as it would have caused a split within the team. This accusation was levelled at me from Ramnarine [obviously stirred by Hinds, Gayle and company] who did not want their teammates to forge any relations with Digicel.

Mobile content initiatives were also halted towards the end of week one. The players complained at their names being used in non political Tour Diaries which were being written by the WI Media Liaison. Total nonsense.

The WICB, also requested these diaries required their approval and posted on windiescricket.com even though Digicel were paying the WICB media liaison's wages whilst on tour for this type of activity.

"Text the Team" and "MMS of the Day" which were solid revenue generation concepts could not happen. At this point, relations were at meltdown and I stopped all contact with the players.

Sadly, hostility was not just extended to my TV crew and me. In Brisbane, Powell and Marshall agreed to be interviewed. They were then ostracised by the team at a visit to Australia Zoo.

I apologised to Marshall (at 18 years old and on his first tour) and asked him how he was finding life abroad. I was astounded to hear not one of the senior players had bothered to look after him. The following night, he seemed incredibly low and I felt compelled to help and invited him to dinner.

Via a mutual friend, Lara, Brown and Bradshaw joined this dinner and appeared bemused to find Marshall with me. This did kick them into action. In my time with Vodafone, as their sponsorship manager, and England, it was a basic requirement of the captain or player taking part in a pre-match press conference to offer small amount of time (5-10 mins) for a branded set-up photo.

Digicel had employed the photographic agency Getty Images to cover matches for this purpose. The players refused to do this. During their trip to the zoo, three players (King, Marshall, Browne) begrudgingly put on a shirt for 20 seconds to pose for a photo. The Getty photographer, a long-standing sports photographer, commented he had never encountered such a reluctance to work on behalf of their sponsor.

This comment from Getty prompted me to ask hotel staff, gatement at grounds and autograph hunters their perception of these men representing West Indies cricket. The general opinion was they were "rude," "surly" and generally lacked manners.

Several fans commented that they appeared not to enjoy themselves. This is a huge area of concern as these players are the ambassadors for West Indies Cricket and Digicel sponsorship.

The captain walking around the lobby of a five-star hotel in the evening wearing a vest and flip flops shows a total lack of appreciation or respect for his position.

So how did they enjoy themselves? To put it simply, if certain members had scored as many runs as they had women's phone numbers, West Indies would have won the VB Series.

On the eve of the Australia match in Brisbane, I heard numerous door banging, and female voices along the player?s hotel corridor well after 1 am. I often worked late (due to Caribbean time zones) and must have walked to and from reception on four occasions. The noises came from at least three rooms.

Perhaps more astounding, was following the team's defeat against Pakistan in Brisbane, the player rooming next to me had "company" 20 minutes after returning from a crushing defeat.

As a former professional cricketer and having toured with England on three occasions, I know men need to have "fun" whilst on tour. However, not at the expense of their performance. Even in Perth, the most crucial time of the tour, one player had flown in a girl from Adelaide.

This West Indies team is a shadow of their former selves on the pitch and from speaking to former players and respected media is an obstructive outfit off pitch.

Watching all three teams prepare, there is lethargy among the West Indies, something given their average talents they can ill afford.

Bennett King has a huge culture change to affect, we swapped frank conversations and he is aware of the scale of his challenge. I would like to mention the work of Bennett King and his coaching team. They were approachable, positive and are totally committed to working in any capacity with Digicel as are a number of this current playing squad.

Relationships with Collins, Browne, Bradshaw, Chanderpaul, Powell, Marshall, Dillon were built. Even Bravo (C&W) and King (WIPA) seemed prepared to work with us.

Though as I referred to earlier, because we are aligned to WICB there is total misinformation as to what Digicel are offering to West Indies cricket. Communication and relations from WICB to the players must be addressed.

WICB must also address the nuts and bolts of the sponsorship contract, I should not be ordering team suitcases from Samsonite UK three days prior to departure, trying to order additional Admiral training kit because players are washing kit by hand in hotel rooms or running around mounting team photographs that form part of Digicel?s signed merchandise allocation. It is simply a lack of planning or understanding.

There seems to have been little progressive sponsorship activation in the past. The players are largely not sponsor/media savvy but are motivated purely by money. They are poorest ambassadors from any representative team I have come across in my six years working in seven different sports.

As a sponsorship manager, I am deeply concerned as to the length of the road Digicel need to travel to begin to gain benefit from their $20 million investment. That is unless major changes are made to the current structures.

To close this sad and disturbing report, the current player relationship can be summed up in one incident.

I erected Digicel net banners for branding a practice session. A ball struck a cable tie which secured the banners. The banner partly fell: I heard cheers and laughter from certain members of the team.

There is no doubt the personal Cable and Wireless contracts are the centre of the problem. With no relationship, access or support from captain Lara, Gayle and Sarwan, the highest profile players who should be at the forefront of this sponsorship, combined with a terrorist players association, our current rights have negligible value, if any.

- Richard Nowell
Digicel Group Sponsorship Manager

WICB'S RESPONSE:

"The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is aware of a newspaper report with respect to the recent tour of Australia by the West Indies team for the VB Series.

The President of the WICB is in communication on the matter with the chairman of Digicel, official sponsors of the West Indies team and the principal investor in the development of West Indies cricket.

The issues surrounding that publication will be among items to be discussed at a previously scheduled meeting of the Directors of the WICB on Sunday 20 February in Barbados.

Other items on the agenda include the tour reports from the manager, the coach and the media liaison on the VB Series, the financial condition of the Board and the status of the negotiations with the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) with respect to clause 5 of the Match/Tour Contract, sponsorship fees and Retainer fees.