Walkabout - The laughing stock of world cricket

Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sports

I HATE to flog a dead horse but, really, what choice does the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) give you?

Time after time after time, the board had shown glaring lacks of leadership, fiscal nous and just good, old-fashioned street sense.

The name in charge may change but the same embarrassing, ridiculous, ill-informed moves continue to be made as the board enhances its reputation as the laughing stock of world cricket and drags all of us along with it.

I find it almost impossible to believe the board members don't have the region's best interests at heart or that Caribbean jealousies and rivalries hamstring the body to the point of glacial progress.

It must just be a simple case of collective and utter incompetence.

How else can you explain the recent debacle between the WICB, Sir Allen Stanford's 20/20 organisation and the board's premier sponsor, Digicel?

To sum it up, Big Al held his annual, regional 20/20 tournament and then subsequently announced a 20/20 match for US$20 million which would involve a West Indian Stanford Allstars team and an England side.

The WICB couldn't agree to the deal fast enough - mainly because a cool US$3.5 million of the booty would go straight into its dusty coffers.

Digicel rights breached

However, before the board could stop slapping itself on the back over a job well done for doing virtually nothing but taking Stanford's handout, in stepped Digicel which pointed out that it is the primary sponsor of West Indies cricket and its branding and commercial rights had been breached.

Digicel took the WICB to London's High Court and promptly won the case.

Behind-the-scenes negotiations between Big Al and Digicel supremo Denis O'Brien after the verdict will see the winner-take-all game go ahead on November 1 in Antigua, but the WICB is left with the court costs and a huge pile of egg on its face.

Did no alarm bells ring in the hollow halls of the WICB when Sanford first made his offer? Was there no thought of the contract with Digicel? Was there not one lawyer present to point out the potential problems of signing on with Stanford?

Apparently not as it seems the WICB was simply dazzled by the dollars and just hoped Digicel would stay quiet on the sidelines like a good pal.

Earth to WICB ... Earth to WICB, multinational corporations don't work that way. They put in their bucks and want to see a bang for them and they protect their interests to the hilt.

The naked amateurism of the WICB is simply embarrassing to itself and the region and West Indies cricket will not move forward an iota until the whole board structure is overhauled.

What of radical changes?

Former Jamaica PM P.J. Patter-son and his special team, commissioned by the WICB, last year recommended radical changes to the board's structure in a highly publicised report, but what's come of that?

This latest disaster could see the heads of bad president Julian Hunte and chief executive Donald Peters roll but will that serve any great purpose if, as has been so often the case, they are merely replaced by like minds?

The board talks big but acts small and some agency, most likely CARICOM, should step in and take charge.

Either that or, defying history, the board should take a hard look at itself, cut away the dead wood and reinvent itself as a properly functioning corporate body instead of a cricket old boys' club.

Giddy up, WICB, giddy up.

Later ...

Feedback: tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com.