EDITORIAL - An opportunity for cricket

Two recent developments in West Indies cricket have received surprisingly little attention, or analysis.

After a decade in the job, Dinanath Ramnarine stepped down in March as president and chief executive officer of the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA). Michael Hall, a Jamaican with substantial experience in cricket management, replaced him as CEO.

It has been reported, too, that Dr Ernest Hilaire is leaving as CEO of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for an ambassadorial posting for his native St Lucia.

We believe that the combined effect of these resignations could be to provide a window of opportunity, albeit narrow and possibly brief, for recalibrating the conversation on how to resuscitate the game in the region. At least our players and cricket management may be able to talk with an absence of hubris and with less dissonance on the line, which appeared impossible with Messrs Ramnarine and Hilaire. That, of itself, would be an important breakthrough.

Brunt of the blame

After two decades at the top of the global sport, West Indies cricket has been in the doldrums for nearly as long, since our defeat by Australia in the home tour of 1995.

Not surprisingly, the WICB, which oversees the regional game, has borne the brunt of the blame for this long and deep trough, which has persisted despite the several, and not infrequent, changes of personnel at the policy and executive levels. An incorporated entity owned primarily by domestic cricket associations, the board has been called everything from incompetent to corrupt, and accused of resisting reform and upsetting privileged relationships.

Indeed, in a message read at a round table hosted by the Michael Manley Foundation last week, Michael Holding offered this explanation for the WICB's perceived resistance to reform of its structure: "They do not want anything to mess up what appears to nothing more than a cosy little boys' club, where they do each other favours and operate in a vacuum, not having to answer to anyone."

Ideology of Caribbean nationalism

We, however, believe this to be an oversimplified, if not simplistic, analysis of economic, political, socio-cultural, as well as personality, cross-currents that have affected the game in the Caribbean over the past two decades. The ideology of Caribbean nationalism in which cricket prospered has been overtaken by economic globalisation. Political, as well as cricket, management in the Caribbean still struggles to adjust.

Cricketers, exemplified by their representative body, of which Mr Ramnarine was the face, adjusted faster. No longer driven by regionalism, they embraced the market. Their demand of the right to fully leverage opportunities in the emerging cricket market created tensions with the WICB which, despite its formally corporatist structure, is not fully evolved of the market.

These tensions were exacerbated by the deep personality conflicts between Messrs Ramnarine and Hilaire, of which we believe the Hilaire-Christopher Gayle stand-off was essentially a subset.

We are, however, encouraged by Michael Hall's call, at the Manley Foundation discussion, for a "settled industrial relations landscape" in West Indies cricket, a critical cornerstone to the game's commercial viability. "WIPA stands ever ready to be a part of that kind of effort," he said.

It is important that the new CEO of the WICB has not only technical skills, but the emotional intelligence to embrace Hall without the tension.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.