Breese Reassigned in JCA Reorg

In its stated mission to advance the game of cricket in Jamaica through excellent leadership, the Jamaica Cricket Association took a proactive step and restructured its operations after conducting a business audit. The changes, which took effect at the beginning of September, see the role of Chief Executive Officer split into two distinct functions.

Brian Breese moves to the post of Cricket Operations Officer, with responsibility for all matters pertaining to domestic, regional and international cricket as it relates to Jamaica. Breese was formerly the CEO.

A new position of Business Executive has been created, and after advertising for the post, Paulton Gordon was selected for the job. Gordon was previously Assistant Director for Community Sports at the Social Development Commission. He will have under his portfolio all matters relating to the financial, administrative and marketing operations of the JCA.

According to 1st Vice President Paul Campbell, the decision to restructure came out of the process of developing the association's three year strategic plan, which is yet to be finalized. This process was led by the Executive of the Board which comprises the President ? Jackie Hendriks, two Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer. Both positions will report to the Board's Executive, who set a policy framework within which the officers will operate.

"We came up with certain objectives and in order to drive those critical success factors, we decided we needed to raise the level of administration to take the JCA to be a more efficient and professional unit," said Campbell. He continued "we have always employed a CEO based on cricket knowledge and not business knowledge. We decided to shift the focus of who ran the business side of the game."

In addition, the 1st Vice President said that with the World Cup approaching, the association wanted to make sure they were equipped to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

One of the JCA's aims according to Campbell, is to establish a fund with sufficient seed money for use throughout the island to raise the standard of the game. Campbell, who is also Chairman of the JCA's Marketing Committee, said Gordon will be expected to bring more sponsors on board to enable this to happen.

Campbell noted that since the success of Jamaica's cricket relies on the quality of the Clubs and Parish Associations, this will be an area of priority. "I don't think there has been any significant infrastructural investment in cricket over the years. In order to grow the game, the infrastructure must be improved," explained Campbell. Many clubs outside of the Kingston Metropolitan Area (Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine) do not own a ground, and the JCA is conscious of the effect this has on the standard of the game.

Three of the measures that the JCA will use to evaluate the success of this new structure are (1) the extent to which they have been able to bring money in; (2) improvement in communication, which it acknowledges as one of its weaker areas and (3) the overall efficiency of the JCA including how well they have managed sponsorship relations.

Last year, the JCA created history by signing a three year deal worth J$45m with Supreme Ventures to sponsor the local two-day competition. Red Stripe Beer came on board this year to sponsor the second division two-day competition to the tune of J$18m. The limited overs competition has been sponsored by Capital & Credit Merchant Bank since 2002. Initially it was for J$10m over five years however this year the bank increased its sponsorship by J$1m.

Commenting on the separation of cricket and administrative operations, Brian Breese said "the addition of the Business Executive leaves more time for me to focus on areas such as grounds, competitions, and playing fixtures." One of the changes proposed for next year's domestic competition is an earlier start in February versus April. This will allow for more of Jamaica 's senior players who normally play in the English leagues to be on show ? a win-win situation for both the sponsors and the JCA.

Campbell was not aware if any of the other territorial boards have this sort of structure, which was also guided by an examination of how some businesses in the private sector operated. "Based on our discussions with various stakeholders, some people felt it might not work," said Campbell.

But he is optimistic, along with the Executive, that this is a step in the right direction. "The image of the association must be taken to a different level. We have to lead by example," stated Campbell.