Less than a year in office, the chief executive of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) clearly hasn’t been sitting on his bum in his office in St.John’s, twiddling his thumbs, issuing inane statements and unduly worrying about the constant carping of Dinanath Ramnarine, head of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) and nemesis of all of his predecessors.
He has simply got on with the job he was appointed to do.
When the WICB was predictably castigated for cutting its 2010 first-class season in half so that each team was reduced to six matches, rather than 12, he explained that the object was to put the money saved into reviving international series for the ‘A’ team that had been inactive for two years.
Three weeks ago, he duly announced a full itinerary over the next three months for the coming generation of West Indies cricketers.
In that time, the ‘A’ team is scheduled for matches in Grenada, Bangladesh, England and Ireland against opponents as varied as Zimbabwe, Ireland and their counterparts of Bangladesh, South Africa, India and England. It is vital preparation for their next step up.
Last week, Hilaire unveiled an impressive document under the WICB’s logo with the daunting title: “Transforming West Indies Cricket”.
It listed five tournaments planned over the next 12 months.
The regional 50-overs series in October and November and the annual first-class competition in February and March are already standard.
The others are new.
The regional Twenty20 in July is the first organised by the WICB and the first since the demise of the ill-fated Allen Stanford franchise in 2008.
It leads on to the “Calypso Cup” in January, also planned on the Twenty20 format, to feature four regional teams (presumably resolved by results in the July event), two English counties and one other overseas team still to be determined.
Even a regional beach cricket contest is scheduled, according to the document, “piloted in one island during the last quarter of 2010 and then rolled out across the Caribbean in 2011”.
“Although essentially a grass roots initiative, it will involve star quality former and current players, playing in mini-beach stadiums in front of attractive sun-baked Caribbean crowds,” the blurb added.
That sentence alone reveals the marketing thrust behind the exercise.
It is an area in which the WICB has been palpably deficient, an obvious fact given its progressive loss of sponsors. Unless they can be lured back, it is inconceivable that the “transformation” now envisaged could be fully achieved.
Spooked by the repeated instances of the WICB’s ineptitude, its open squabbles with the WIPA, the several players’ strikes, the mediocre performances of the team and much else besides, Red Stripe, Busta, Carib and KFC have all pulled out in recent times so that both major tournaments, four-day and one-day, are now unsponsored. It is a heavy financial burden for the board to carry.
To develop the thrust now manifested in the promotional brochure, the WICB employed Terry Blake, a former commercial director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) with considerable experience in the field in several sports, to, as it puts it, “lead its marketing revival”.
He and Hilaire have been traversing the Caribbean these past few weeks, brochure in hand, proclaiming their catch-phrase to potential sponsors” “The legacy begins here…be part of it.”
The responses have been reportedly encouraging but Hilaire must know that, especially at a time of economic decline, corporations won’t be disposed to putting their names to a sport, even as fervently popular as cricket is in the West Indies, that has been so consumed by controversy, chaos and underachievement.
Even as Hilaire and Blake were pressing their case before prospective investors last week, Ramnarine tossed an untimely spanner in the works by asserting that “the players are not happy with the way things are going in West Indies cricket at the moment and they have complained about a number of issues to us”.
He spoke of the state of hotels and practice facilities during the recent first-class season and said that some players had to sleep on the floor in a hotel in Trinidad. He even claimed that one player had to bathe by a standpipe in Jamaica.
Those acquainted the WICB’s operations over the past 20 years or so know that such accusations are not far-fetched. Hilaire must know that as well. He must also know that there are operatives under him repeatedly responsible for such simple errors who remain in place.
It was encouraging, therefore, to read the second paragraph of “Transforming West Indies Cricket”.
It states: “West Indies Cricket Board is undertaking a complete strategic operational and staffing review covering all areas of activity and seeking to re-establish West Indies as a dominant force in the world game.”
In other words, it is seeking to replace incompetent personnel. This is not a straightforward task for, to do so, it must deal with unions and with the political and insular biases of its 17 directors.
But Hilaire’s initiative will get nowhere unless he can have under him capable staff.
In “Transforming West Indies Cricket”, Hilaire is described as “a dynamic new CEO”.
One dictionary describes “dynamic” as “full of energy, enthusiasm and a sense of purpose and able both to get things going and to get things done.”
So far, Hilaire has fit the bill but, as those who have preceded him can attest, his energy, enthusiasm and sense of purpose will be severely tested over time.
