A Board Without Control
Stranglehold was the word Brian Lara used to describe the relationship between sponsors and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) two months ago.
It conveys the power relations that exist between both parties. One at the mercy of the other. Doesn't sound too healthy a business relationship, does it?
One sign that an industry has reached maturity is when it acquires enough assets to manage its own affairs. In that sense, the WICB, despite its 80 years of existence, is still an immature entity.
Remember a couple years ago when Teddy Griffith declared the WICB so financially strapped it had to accept Digicel? Remember in March Ken Gordon said the WICB needed US$25 million to deal with its debt burden? The inclination was to turn to Allen Stanford to bail them out. In both cases, the board was placing itself in a beholden position to other corporate entities.
Gordon also announced that the board had cut its losses for one period by more than US$1 million by reducing management costs. In a statement on February 26, he identified several WICB goals for January to June 2006, and indicated that he would report on the status at the end of that period.
Those plans were to: 1. Finalise retainer contracts for players. 2. Restructure the board. 3. Publish annual reports/ accounts. 4. Develop a plan for WI cricket. 5. Integrate Stanford 20/20 Initiative into WICB. 6. Launch Lotto Visa Card programmes. 7. Launch fund-raising drives. 8. Achieve break-even on profit/loss. 9. Start leadership training programmes for future captains.
A Caribbean lottery was supposed to have begun in April.
How many of these objectives have been realised?
We know that item No. 1 is still not sorted. Indeed, the news is that Dwayne Bravo has been dropped off the already short list of players considered for retainer contracts. Bravo exudes a positive mental attitude that lifts his team, and he has the qualities that make him a key element in the development of a strong team. We are told he's been dropped off the retainer list because of his existing contract with bMobile.
This is the stranglehold identified by Lara when he proposed a funding plan that envisaged cricket fans paying an annual membership fee of US$20 each to "ensure that West Indies cricket survives".
Pointless to harp on the dastardly demands of sponsors or their rights to 11 pounds of flesh. Instead, focus should be on how this entity called West Indies cricket can become a self-sustaining, profit-generating one that can go past the basic duty to feed, clothe and shelter itself, and begin to seriously address the questions of research and planning to develop the sport into a modern, well-equipped, resourceful industry.
The marketing of the game has been so devoid of ideas that the concept of West Indies cricket as a brand that has value remained lost even when that brand was at its premium. Many aspects of Caribbean culture that could have been woven into cricket marketing have been shunted aside as trifles. I come again to the point that as long as you have a board that does not hold players in esteem, they will never see the value cricketers can bring in partnership.
They will not see how they could produce posters of cricket icons, will not see how DVDs of matches can be desirable, will not see that cricketers moving through the regional circuit and speaking to people can draw crowds. They will see no benefit in producing documentaries and films. They will not see that ownership brings control over destiny.
Rather, we can have easy access to T-shirts and caps that feature the WICB's logo unobtrusively, because the legend emblazoned on them is Digicel. Indeed, the maroon has become quite scarce at the cricket grounds, because everywhere you turn, it is red.
Digicel red. Proud owners of the game.
* This column is republished with permission from the NATION newspaper in Barbados where it first appeared.