The Story of the Missing US$3M
Tue, Apr 19, '05
On March 4, in a televised address widely distributed in the Caribbean, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Teddy Griffith outlined the details of the new sponsorship deal and described it as an "average net sponsorship amount of US$3.4 million" that would be received by the board annually over the five years of the Digicel agreement.
West Indian fans were left puzzled as the original press reports describing the Digicel sponsorship deal had consistently referred to a figure of US$20 million. Even an accountant in the employ of the WICB could figure out that something seemed out of place.
A figure of $3.4 million per annum over 5 years yields a total of $17 million, not $20 million as had been previously reported.
So, what had happened to the remaining US$3 million US?
Was Digicel really contributing far less than had been widely reported? Mr. Griffith himself shed no light on this matter and it seems the the compliant Caribbean media, often dependent on the WICB for their incomes, were mostly in no mood to ask any embarrassing questions.
Finally, the truth may be coming to light. Anil Roberts reported in the Trinidad Guardian that "The WICB, knowing its own limited capacity to negotiate million-dollar deals, enlisted the help of a third party (at a whopping US$2.5-three million fee) to source sponsorship on its behalf".
The upper end of the figures given by Mr. Roberts for the fee paid by the WICB to the third party broker is exactly equal to the difference between the amounts quoted in the press reports describing the Digicel Sponsorship and the numbers given by the WICB president himself. That would seem to be more than coincidence.
US$3 Million, by the way, would have paid all players fees for a year.
What is most disturbing is the fact that the WICB, by its own admission, turned down an offer from of its long-standing sponsor Cable & Wireless of $US3.65 million per year ($US10.95 million over 3 years) for an offer that was actually worth less on a yearly basis. Even that sum could have been significantly increased by shrewd negotiation. History has shown that both C&W and a local T&T company would have been willing to put up at least $4 million per annum, over a longer period of time.
We all are only too familiar with the fall-out of that Digicel deal: A number of leading players being unable to attend the training camp which was held prior to the VB series in Australia; the sacking of vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan from that position when that series ultimately did go ahead; the enforced absence of four of the best players for the first Test against South Africa and the replacement of the West Indies skipper by someone more amenable to the new sponsors.
All this conflict for what? About quarter a million US a year LESS.
Indeed this very fall-out has rather conveniently for the WICB served only to divert attention away from their true incompetence. It seems that some fans are quite happy for the board to deliver a deal which brings in substantially less monies to West Indies cricket that could have been achieved by a competent organization, provided some of the players they dislike are taken down a peg.
It may well be appropriate that maroon is the official color of West Indies cricket. For the West Indies team finds itself firmly marooned behind the seven other major Test playing nations, with the new-comers Zimbabwe and Bangladesh steadily making up the ground between them.
Performances on the field have been well less than acceptable for many years now. However, the performances of the board chartered to administer West Indies cricket have been far worse and until that administration improves any upward trend in on-field performance is likely to prove to be extremely short-lived.