Q&A with WICB President Ken Gordon
Thu, Aug 10, '06
Exactly one year ago this week, Ken Gordon assumed the presidency of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) with a bold promise to usher in a new era of transparency and accountability.
The 76-year-old career businessman, who also chairs the World Cup 2007 Inc. board of directors, promised to slash costs at the WICB and improve the board's relationship with the players' association. In this interview with CaribbeanCricket.com editor-in-chief Ryan Patrick, Gordon looks back at the ups-and-down of his first year in office.
I will leave others to do the rating. Credibility is not something you can switch on or off. You have to do set objectives and work hard to achieve them.
In the very beginning, I identified six specific things I wanted to get done. First off, we had to address the contents of Lucky Report. We dealt with that comprehensively, answering each point and accepting all the recommendations. There is one final one still to be implemented and that will be done by September 1st.
We also wanted to restore the discussions [with WIPA] and make sure that the best team go on the tour to Australia. We did both of those.
A fourth objective was to ensure we developed a plan to address the board's [weak] financial position. We developed that plan and implemented a few things and now we're well positioned to break-even at the end of the current financial year. In the prior year, we had a loss of US$6.5 million so that is a big improvement.
I also undertook to have personal discussions with the Caricom heads of governments to ensure our plans are well known to all. That's an objective we've met and. We have fully briefed the prime ministers every step of the way.
The sixth objective was the big one. Signing retainer contracts with the players. That was one that was not achieved but I think we have achieved quite a lot. We are still working hard on the last one and there's a new agreement [with WIPA] in place to get this all sorted by August 31.
This is probably the fourth of fifth deadline to get the retainer contract issue settled. Why should anyone believe it will get done by August 31 when you couldn't get it done for two years?
We committed to signing all outstanding memorandums and agreements by the end of August. We'll work hard to make sure that is done.
But, you had a January deadline. Then another deadline in March. Then another. And another. And they all come and go without agreement. Why should anyone believe that August 31 will be different?
You need not believe it. You have two weeks to wait to find out. Insofar as the ongoing problems that arise with the players, as long as they remain, we'll continue to have serious gaps in acceptance by the fans. We have an understanding with WIPA that these [public] conflicts are not in the best interest of West Indies cricket and we've resolved to honour all agreements. We have to give ourselves some time to go through everything in detail and work [with WIPA] to get everything signed and implemented.
If you are honoring all agreements, how does this affect your decision to deny Dwayne Bravo a retainer contract? Isn't that a violation of the ICC/FICA ruling?
The situation with Bravo is one of the things that have to be resolved between now and the end of August. WIPA has a position on it and we have a position on it. Now we have two weeks to get it resolved. We made a commitment and we signed on to it. If we don't reach an agreement, you are fully justified to level some stick at us.
But you agreed to be bound by the ICC/FICA ruling...
We will get this all squared away by August 31. We will work hard to get it done. We've committed ourselves to a work together [with the players] to dispose of all these outstanding matters.
Six months ago, the WICB approved the 'Bennett King Plan' for cricket development in the West Indies and promised to make it public for discussion. Why hasn't that happened yet?
That was something that maybe was too rushed. We had a good outline but it wasn't properly fleshed out. Plus, there's the big issue of funding it. We have to make sure we get it right and get everything in place before we start the implementation stage. We've postponed the public workshop to the middle of September where the plan will be outlined in detail.
The money issue still has to be resolved. We had some discussions with [R Allen] Stanford and he indicated he would sponsor the first year of the development plan. That has now changed and he won't be sponsoring it. So we have to find a sponsor for it. The estimate is that it's going to cost US$2 million a year for four years. There's no way we can implement that program without finding a sponsor.
The board hasn't had a CEO since March. When do you plan to fill that vacancy?
The single most important thing in any organisation is the CEO. We have to be absolutely sure we find the right person. We're not dealing with just applicants from a single country. You have a lot of different territories who legitimately feel that their people should be considered for the job. Our panel met once already to consider the candidates and we have a second meeting coming up soon. We have a shortlist already and we will make a final determination very soon. We hope to have the CEO in place by October.
Based on your financial position, are you confident you'll have money to implement retainers fund the cricket development plan and run the operations of the board?
We're not comfortable now but, then again, we weren't confident from the beginning. We have to work with what exists. We inherited a deficit of US$15 million. In addition, we had a year with a further loss of $6.5 million on operations. We have to bring operations back on an even keel to make sure we're not losing money. That's our primary focus right now.
After that, we can start working on the deficit and the cricket development plan. We're hoping that [revenues from] the World Cup will help to clear the path for us.
At the same time, there's millions of dollars being pumped into the Stanford 20/20 tournament. How will the WICB cope with the obvious conflicts associated with that tournament going forward?
We're living a dynamic situation. If Stanford didn't do it, someone else would. He had an idea and he had the financing to put it in place. A lot of cricketers and territories have already benefited.
Has it helped our cricket development at the WICB? No. Would that kind of money invested in the WICB take us much further. Yes. But we can't control what Stanford does with his money. On balance, I think the 20/20 tournament has more pluses than minuses. It has made cricket popular in the eyes of lots of fans who were going away from cricket. We have to try to integrate what he's doing into our programmes.
Of course, there will be clashes. I've seen the discussions on potential problems going forward but we have to work towards solutions. We can't dwell on problems. As an organisation, we have to take on the challenges and make things work for us.
How would you describe your relationship with the WICB directors? You already had a problem with the way Brian Lara was appointed captain...
There's absolutely no problem in our boardroom. If there are people with individual problems, you'll have to ask them about that. Of course, we've had differences but, on balance, we've worked very well as a team. Regarding that [your report on the appointment of Lara], it was a bit blown out of proportion and taken out of context. We had differences and we aired those differences.
How is it possible that Brian Lara could be named a selector and no one bothered to tell him? What's the story behind the letter that was delivered one month late?
That was an unfortunate breakdown in communications. It tied into the time when I had to leave the Caribbean and I wrongly assumed that things were in place. I left assuming that Brian was informed because a decision was taken to have him on the panel. Because of a series of circumstances, this was not communicated to him. It was a major breakdown and the WICB takes full responsibility for it. We've already apologised to Brian.
Insofar as how it stands now, we are all very clear on the captain's role on the selection panel. He has apologised for his comments and that apology has been accepted. Now it's time to move forward. We have to leave the baggage behind.
You've been talking about leaving the baggage behind all year but, every other month, there's dirty laundry being aired, even by your own board...
That's not just a statement I make. That's my philosophy in life. We can't move forward with the negativity and baggage. We have to set objectives and move forward with the pluses outweighing the minuses. Only then will West Indies cricket start to make progress.