Schlepping Through the WICB Secrecy

This weekend in Guyana, the people who make the decisions on the future of West Indies cricket will meet for a crucial round of meetings.

In business-as-usual fashion, cricket fans around the Caribbean remain in the dark about the decision-making process. Outside of a bland press release that deals only with Saturday's AGM, a lot of outstanding issues remain cloaked in secrecy. CaribbeanCricket.com sifts through these issues and offers some predictions...

Led by the ultra-militant West Indies Players' Association (WIPA), there is a move to get rid of Viv Richards from the senior selection panel. (This is separate from Guyana's bid to insert Clyde Butts in Joey Carew's place).

It is the worst-kept-secret that Richards and captain Brian Lara have been at each other's throats over team selection matters and WIPA president Dinanath Ramnarine threw gas on the fire the day before the board meeting when he complained to Tony Cozier that Richards had "verbally belittled" several players.

Lara had already complained in a newspaper column that Richards and his co-selectors had missed the plot by opting for four pacers in the first Test against Bangladesh. To make matters worse, a WIPA source told CaribbeanCricket.com that Richards bluntly told pacer Merv Dillon that he will never again represent the West Indies as long as he (Richards) was a selector.

Such a statement did not sit well with Ramnarine, who himself was at the receiving end of a similar threat from then-captain Carl Hooper. Now, Ramnarine is busy twisting arms to side with Lara and the rest of WIPA's membership. "Our members who have kept our phones busy spoke of outright intimidation by selectors. They felt that it could adversely affect their performance and that of the team," Ramnarine told Cozier.

It all smacks of public posturing by the WIPA president and some board members are nervous about WIPA's influence on the decision making process. "We need to closely look at what happened in Zimbabwe before WIPA and Dinas take us down the same road," one high-level official told CaribbeanCricket.com.

Even as Ramnarine (and Lara) are being criticised for using the media to deal with internal matters, there is a feeling among some directors that Richards (and Gordon Greenidge) haven't covered themselves in glory during their first term as selectors. More than a few WICB directors were miffed that Richards and Greenidge blew off the Carib Beer Finals (and Carib Beer XI match) and opted to play in a fete match for an appearance fee of between US$1,000 and $2,000.

Still, amidst the drama and intense lobbying, the Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) is pushing hard for the retention of Richards as chief selector. It boils down to a straight power struggle between Richards and Lara and the smart money is on Richards winning the battle this time around.

TEAM MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
When Ricky Skerritt walked away and Tony Howard took his place as team manager, the WICB asked vice president Val Banks to "review the management structure" of the senior team and submit a report by April 23.

The report was done and submitted on time but, like everything else, it remains a closely guarded secret. CaribbeanCricket.com has learnt that Banks has recommended that the head coach assume full power over all team matters (much like how it works in U.S. pro sports).

Under the new structure, expected to be approved by the WICB, the head coach will be empowered and given specific goals and performance-related responsibilities. The selection panel will work as scouts under the coach's supervision and will not be proactively involved in the team.

According to people who have seen the report, the position of team manager will be retained. The manager will be a full-time WICB employee and operate out of the board's Antigua headquarters in between tours and serve as support staff to the head coach/czar.

The directors are happy with the recommendations but are worried that it cannot be implemented with Gus Logie as coach. Logie's passive personality does not fit into the idea of the one-man-is-boss concept and his well-known problems with Lara are among the concerns. "Logie is the wrong choice for this job. He has no stature to take control, especially with Lara around," one official lamented.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
This is a leftover issue from the last AGM in Dominica when Guyana's Chetram Singh became the first unopposed nominee in history to withdraw from a race for the WICB presidency.

At that meeting, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) tabled a resolution asking that membership of the Executive Commitee (EC) be structured so that no single territory has an unfair position. The resolution called for three directors other than the President and Vice President to be from three different territories and from territories different from the President and Vice President.

Had this resolution passed it would have meant that Barbados' Stephen Alleyne would not have been eligible to sit on the EC with Teddy Griffith as president. However, the resolution did not receive support and the matter was deftly referred to solicitors Clarke and Company to review the Articles of Association to determine whether changes were necessary.

In Guyana this weekend, a recommendation is expected to be made that the Articles of Association remain unchanged. This will again lead to a situation where Alleyne, a very powerful director, may have to resign from the Executive Committee.

DIGICEL SWOOPS IN
Jamaica-based telecommunications provider Digicel has apparently swooped in and nabbed the sponsorship rights to West Indies home tours from rival Cable & Wireless.

After news leaked out last November that the WICB and Cable & Wireless had agreed in principle to a new three-year deal, Digicel sweetened the pot and torpedoed the C&W partnership.

Believing it had a deal last November, officials at Cable & Wireless had gone as far as organising a press conference to make an announcement but, all along, the WICB had been quietly feeling out offers from Digicel and AT&T.

Cable & Wireless, which is fast losing its telecom monopoly in the Caribbean market, has sponsored the West Indies team during its home series since 1986. The agreement typically gives the sponsor exclusive rights to be the main/official sponsor of the West Indies Test and ODI teams and to be the official mobile provider and official communications provider of the WICB.

An interesting twist that could potentially complicate matters is the fact that Cable & Wireless has gone ahead and contracted several key players on the team (including captain and batting star Brian Lara). "It could compromise the any contract negotiations and cause problems," one involved insider said.

Cable & Wireless has a separate deal to be a sponsor of the ICC World Cup tournament in 2007.

The full board of directors is expected to bless the Digicel deal this weekend but there are lingering concerns that Digicel might abandon the sponsorship after the initial three-year contract ends. One official explained: "Digicel is working hard to topple Cable & Wireless market share in the Caribbean and North America. Once they accomplish that, they can bail out on us and that's a concern. On the other hand, Cable & Wireless has been a loyal sponsor for 12 years."