An outcast in the cricket family
A few years ago, the International Cricket Council (ICC) mandated its member boards to integrate the membership between its male and female arms and to have a central administration.The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was one of the last boards to comply, and even then back in 2005, it was a wishy-washy move that first tried to disband the West Indies Women's Cricket Federation (WIWCF), then reinstated it and set up an integration steering committee to oversee the process.
Prior to this, the WICB provided $100 000 annually to help the WIWCF meet expenditure for tournaments, training, gear and so on (the equivalent perhaps of a cricketer's tour fee). A report by Jenny Thompson on the cricinfo.com website a few days ago described how much further the WICB had gone in its annihilation drive of West Indies cricket.
Since taking over, the WICB has discontinued even its annual subvention, leaving the women even further strapped for resources.
Having been involved in a couple of the WIWCF's projects and some of the Trinidad and Tobago Women's Cricket Board of Control as well, I remember the WICB's disregard that greeted requests for assistance from these bodies. It was as if they, and women's cricket did not exist.
True, it is that the WIWCF has survived, but it has suffered in the process, its progress more a testament to the determination and skill of its membership to glean support for such a low-profile member of the cricket family.
The team made it to the 2005 Cricket World Cup in South Africa through the most horrendous channels of begging right down to the wire for funding to go. Since then, the team have had no games, and unless that is rectified, they will lose any chance to participate in the 2009 Cricket World Cup. Scheduled tours from Pakistan and India this year are not going to happen without funding. And that does not seem likely.
Dr Michael Seepersaud, former WICB development manager, and now secretary of the WIWCF, had spoken with Thompson, telling her how "bleak" the situation had become. The last bit of funding from the board was for the regional Under-19 tournament in Jamaica last year, but that didn't cover airfares or accommodation.
While the WICB is technically fully responsible for regional women's cricket, it does not provide even funds for WIWCF executive meetings, not even the airfares requested. When male WICB directors meet, they do not do so under shabby circumstances; indeed, their patronage is reserved for top West Indian hotels, so it is particularly offensive that the women's body is being treated with such casual disdain.
I asked Dr Seepersaud if anything had changed since Thompson's report; nothing had, of course, though he was about to write to Clive Lloyd, chairman of the Cricket Committee, on the matter. A check with the WICB revealed that a meeting was due and that it was likely that Ann Browne-John, Tony Howard and Jeff Broomes would be asked to address the issue, a response to Thompson's article to be sure.
It is no surprise that the WICB continues to treat women this way. It avoided the ICC merger mandate and then handled it with total inefficiency. It shows no respect or sense of value for the contributions made by women, in sport and every sphere.
It would do well to study how the women have managed to survive for all these years without any stable financial income, with virtually only voluntary staff, and without the entire West Indian population ready to pitch in at every turn.
The WICB has had all the support it could possibly need and has made a hash of it at every juncture. A simple matter of embracing the women's arm into the body has been converted into yet another sordid affair, and I feel sorry that the WIWCF has been forced into this crippling relationship because it might have been better off fending for themselves.