'New dawn for West Indies cricket'

One of the major commitments I made at the time that I assumed the Presidency of the West Indies Board was that there would be full transparency in the manner in which the Board conducted its affairs...

We are pleased to take that promise of transparency to a new level with a resumption of the West Indian Cricket Board's Annual Report. This will hereafter be done on an annual basis. The consolidated accounts for the years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 are both contained in this Report. They tell a dismal story. But they represent the recent history of the organisation, not its current financial realities.

The significant turn around of the WICB commenced during the second half of the 2005/2006 financial year and will be fully captured when the accounts for the current financial year, September 2006-August 2007, are published. Our focus in this report will therefore be on the major activities, including management accounts, of the current financial year and the foundation which has been put in place for the future.

The process of transforming the WICB into a result-driven organisation has begun. At the beginning of my term I asked to be judged on the basis of results and now as I depart, this statement will report on what has been achieved and the structures, which have been in place for the development of West Indies cricket.

1. Cricket: The performance of our team on the field has been for the most part disappointing. We have changed captains, altered selectors, lost one of the best batsmen the world has seen, had our coach depart prematurely, appointed a cricket committee and made innumerable adjustments to our team, but the results continue to be up and down and far more often down. With some exceptions, we remain a tragedy of unfulfilled potential. There were moments before the World Cup when we dared to dream of winning it. More recently there was the outstanding performance of the team in winning the ODI series in England. Hopefully, that may represent a new beginning, but the evidence suggests that with the best of intentions we have been tinkering for too long with a problem that requires a fundamental change of culture and commitment. A change that will impose discipline as a matter of course and make people accountable for their behaviour.

Our team lacks the toughness, mental and physical, of professional sustainability. At a time when our players are amongst the best paid in the game, we hear complaints that a "curfew is too restrictive", "training standards are too vigorous", "the fellas need a break". All this while we remain at the lower end of the international scale and the leading teams conform to the demands of today's professional cricket as a matter of course.

Our performance in the World Cup was our moment of truth. Now we must acknowledge the failure of not only our cricketers, but even more pointedly the failure of those of us who have had the responsibility to do the things we have not done.

The other fundamental objective to which I committed myself at the beginning of my term was to pull together a foundation from which West Indies cricket could be rebuilt. Too many things flowed in different directions. Cricket was and still is all over the place and because of the intense emotion it generates in our six million-plus people whatever goes wrong is fed into a media circus. Those with agendas feed this and there is little breathing space to take considered coordinated action when addressing one or other of the myriad problems which occur daily.

But the truth is that it is impossible to do so when you are also insolvent and kept alive only by the good will of your debtors. You live in a state of firefighting rather than managing effectively. Clearly then the underlying problem in the belly of it all was the finances of the WICB. And that had to be the first order of transformation, for without it nothing else was possible.

2. Finance: The parlous state of WICB's finances was accelerated on its downward slide with the introduction of the Future Tours Programme.

The past ten years have been a building financial disaster. When our administration took office in August 2005, the WICB was bankrupt. That is a simple statement of fact. We were unable to pay our bills, lines of credit had dried up, we had suffered a loss of US$6.5 million the previous year and there was in addition a consolidated loss built up over the preceding years of US$15 million. After two frequently unpleasant years the situation has been fundamentally altered: Our credit is good, we made a profit of US$1.5 million at the end of 12 months (Sept 05-Sept 06), an improvement over the previous year of US$8 million, and we are on target for the current financial year with a small profit. This during a year when there were no "at home" games and therefore a notoriously difficult financial period. Also, assisted by the returns from the World Cup we have discharged our liabilities and subject to final audit we expect our consolidated loss of US$15 million to be virtually discharged.

It is important to emphasise that the World Cup assisted. It was not responsible for the turn around which had commenced one year earlier with an improvement of US$8 million in our performance between 2005-2006 and the previous year. The WICB can therefore look forward to being clear of all major debt for the first time in more than a decade and operating in a healthy financial environment.

3. The World Cup: Before I comment on the structure and changes that must prepare the foundation we need for our cricket, let us look at the World Cup as the major project of the WICB calendar. This event has been heavily criticised for its rigidity, high prices, being too up market, not delivering opportunity to the small man, and requiring too heavy an investment. Some of the criticisms are not without merit. We must acknowledge that there were weaknesses which might have been addressed differently and from which we must learn for future planning of mega events. I will not explain the circumstances which led to these problems, for this is not a World Cup Report. But it is necessary to put these criticisms into perspective. Let us therefore quickly look at some of the achievements of the World Cup:

- On time delivery of 12 world-class stadiums and 22 practice grounds and facilities.

- The skills development benefit from producing one of the largest events in the world, which has never before been attempted across nine sovereign states and which many thought was impossible.

- The recruitment, training and outstanding performance of 4,300 volunteers

- Training and certification of over 3,000 security personnel across the region delivering an incident-free match day operation

- Global execution of the largest ticketed event in Caribbean history with almost flawless distribution of 672,000 tickets.

- The movement of 16 teams and officials with "plane side pick up" throughout the region over 57 days with a 90 per cent on time record for all flights.

- Moving 7,000 pieces of baggage across the region without losing one.

- The management of over 9,000 men and women across the region

- Delivery to cricket Boards a sum expected to be in excess of US$6 million for cricket development.

- Delivering to LOCs a benefit of some US$32 million in ticket sales.

Earning an estimated profit of US$59 million from the project as compared to South Africa's US$27.2 million in 2005 and England's US$22.3 million in 1999. Further, the benefits of destination exposure simply cannot be quantified, neither can the benefit to sport, if we manage our stadiums right.

Much can be added, but what has been said makes the point. Our World Cup was much more than a learning experience. The WICB fought to get it. We won it, managed it and we delivered the approximate results we said we would. This was corporate achievement at its best and of which we can all be proud. I thank our CWC Board, CEO Chris Dehring and his able staff for their outstanding performance.

4. The Academy: Now I turn to the foundation we must put in place. Over the past two decades all the major cricketing nations of the world, other than the West Indies, have established cricket academies. That is where they work on developing the whole cricketer: the player, his mind and the man the type of development we have been talking about for 22 years, according to Clive Lloyd. It is long overdue that we broaden the horizons of our players and lift them above learning on the job.

Now finally it is going to happen. The Academy will operate on the basis of a hub, with five spokes. The hub will be in Barbados and it is proposed that the spokes be in Jamaica, Leewards, Windwards, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.

The University of the West Indies and the WICB have already signed a MOU which makes the facilities at the 3Ws ground in Barbados available to the WICB. Similar assurances have been given by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda for the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and with the Trinidad and Tobago government for the Brian Lara Stadium. We are pleased to advise that a Caribbean company has now agreed in principle to the sponsorship of the Barbados hub for the first five years and this is likely to be confirmed in a matter of days. We also hope to be in a position to shortly announce the sponsors of the spokes in the other five countries.

The Academy will not only train and develop, it will give cricket a home. The debates on issues need no longer be conducted as a knee jerk reaction in the public gaze. When former West Indies Test players can be programmed to meet systematically with current younger players, this lifts the level of communication, assists understanding and tends to shift us all closer to the same page. Less tangible, perhaps, but in the longer term an unquantifiable benefit.

A project which has been talked about for more than a decade will now ensure the ongoing viability of the Academy. The Governments of Caricom have collectively made a commitment to assist in its financing. They have agreed to make a percentage of the funds from a Caribbean Superball Lottery available for this purpose. The Trinidad and Tobago government, which will not be participating in the lottery for policy reasons, has made a commitment to provide an annual sum via a Trust Fund or otherwise, equivalent to what would have been earned had they participated. Finally therefore, Caribbean people will have the long awaited opportunity to demonstrate their support for Cricket by participating in the lottery. We expect their response to be loud and tangible.

Professor Beckles of UWI, who has done an excellent job in developing the 3Ws Centre of Excellence in Barbados, has been appointed Chairman of the Committee responsible for implementation and will shortly be meeting the media to outline the details of the Academy Structure. The sum expected from the lottery is US$6 million per annum and the start-up date to which Caricom Governments have committed is October 1, 2007.

5. Restructuring: We undertook a major restructuring of the WICB management team which took longer than anticipated. Nonetheless, this exercise contributed significantly to the success of our cost reduction efforts and is now near completion with the recent appointment of an experienced CEO heading our team. Mr Bruce Aanensen has come in to face a strong headwind with many internal distractions. Even so he has made a good start and I have every confidence in his ability to get the job done.

6. WICB/WIPA: Our relationship with WIPA continues to be a matter for concern. The arbitration process has assisted in that strikes have been avoided. But communication between the two organisations remains adversarial. There are reasons for this which I will not address in this report. But I recommend to the new administration that this remains at the top of the list of priorities.

We admire the Stanford initiative and we are happy to hear that Mr Stanford is having fun, but however attractive the short-term benefits, these must fit in the overall plan for rebuilding West Indies cricket, not the other way round.

7. Stanford 20/20: We continue to hope that we may find common ground with Mr Stanford. We have done everything possible to do so and accommodate his requests but our overriding concern must be the growth and development of West Indies Cricket and this is not limited to a four- or five-year cycle. Neither can it be restricted to 20/20 cricket. It is unfortunate that the position of the WICB has from time to time been misrepresented in the media, so it may be helpful to restate our position.

We have from day one sought whatever approvals were requested of us on behalf of the Stanford organisation from our international allies on the ICC Board. Where these were not forthcoming it was not from lack of effort on our part.

Of course there is an inescapable reality in all this which is that Mr Stanford is a businessman. Whatever his desire to assist West Indies cricket this cannot be expected to occur without concern for a return on his investment. He has frankly acknowledged this. But marketing strategies, important as they are, can never be more important than the right development plan and scheduling for our teams and this has to be our primary consideration.

We support 20/20. We admire the Stanford initiative and we are happy to hear that Mr Stanford is having fun, but however attractive the short-term benefits, these must fit in the overall plan for rebuilding West Indies cricket, not the other way round. Once this is understood and remains the common objective of us both, there is no reason whatever why a satisfactory formula should not be found.

8. Digicel Contract: This contract has been a source of concern and has not operated in our favour. It has now been renegotiated with more favourable results for WICB. We expect to earn approximately US$2.6 million more per annum as a consequence. Even more significantly we have been able to negotiate out of the contract the offending clauses which had been inherited and we have included a termination clause which had not previously existed. Perhaps it is necessary to add a further word particularly since its passage was only secured by the use of my casting vote as president, the only occasion on which I have done so in my two-year term.

Our administration met this contract mired in controversy. There was ongoing conflict over various interpretations resulting in unfavorable consequences to the WICB which led to earning even less than was expected from the contract. This led to high level intervention and eventually a complete transformation of Digicel's approach which resulted in the renegotiation to which I have referred. Now a completely new environment exists between Digicel and ourselves and they have committed to additional projects which have already commenced. We now have a contract which is vastly superior and one we can with appropriate notice end when it is in our interest to do so.

We have been able to negotiate out of the [Digicel] contract the offending clauses which had been inherited and we have included a termination clause which had not previously existed. Perhaps it is necessary to add a further word particularly since its passage was only secured by the use of my casting vote as president, the only occasion on which I have done so in my two-year term.

9. Business Plan: The ingredients for our business plan are now all in place. This will be one of the early tasks of our CEO and his team and should prove an invaluable guideline to plot the way forward.

10: Governance: And finally I address the issue of the governance of West Indies cricket. We commenced a review of the governance of the WICB a little more than one year ago. It was intended initially to reduce the size of the board by having one representative, instead of the two who now sit from each regional Board. It was proposed to fill the six vacancies that would have been created with a mix of outstanding achievers from throughout the caribbean. Immediately before the meeting it became clear that this proposal would not have obtained the necessary support. Our options were therefore to continue as we were going or add brandy to the water. We chose the latter and increased the existing number of directors by three. These gentlemen have served us most ably and I publicly thank Sir Alister McIntyre, Dr Grenville Phillips and Mr Clive Lloyd for their important contributions.

Now we have moved to the second phase of the Governance review: A small high-powered committee led by former Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Honourable PJ Patterson, has been appointed to undertake this exercise and to make appropriate recommendations. The other members are Sir Alister McIntyre and Dr Ian McDonald. This is probably the most important committee the WICB has ever appointed for its remit is to chart a course that will move the structure of WI cricket from its largely untouched colonial antecedence into the challenging new world of highly-competitive professional cricket.

The preliminary report which was submitted to the WICB on Saturday July 14 speaks volumes for the manner in which they have approached their task. Their Report was warmly received by the board.

The opening statement of their report is "West Indies cricket does not belong to the WICB; it belongs to the people of the West Indies". A message that goes to the heart of the wider involvement in the decision-making process which is now required.

The Patterson committee has promised its final report by September 15. Meanwhile, the interim report will be discussed at the levels of the regional boards and their comments will have the opportunity of shaping the final recommendations of the committee. I have requested Mr Patterson to make one or other members of his committee available to the regional boards when the matter is being discussed and he is agreeable to doing so.

It is also important to add that as popular as it has become to be critical of the West Indies Cricket Board, the decision to appoint this committee was one which was freely taken by the board of the WICB and the board must be commended for this.

Gentlemen, let me end by saying that it has been an honour to have served West Indies Cricket. We have not achieved the ultimate objective of turning around the performance of our team, which has been sliding for more than a decade, but then it was always more a hope than an expectation that this could be done in two years. We have neither the foundation, the facilities for preparation and certainly not the professional end product which is so much more evident in the other major cricketing nations. Even more fundamentally we have not had the money to do these things and have barely been able to survive. But now we have changed that. There is a new dawn, with new opportunity to rebuild West Indies cricket and we must move forward aggressively to build on what is now in place.

We can take satisfaction in the knowledge that we have lifted our environment from bankruptcy to financial viability; that the challenge of the World Cup has been successfully met and we have delivered where so many expected us to fail; that our 22-year discussed Academy will now become a fact of life on September 14; that the governments of the caribbean continuing the unprecedented collaboration inspired by the World Cup are committed to a start-up date of October 1, 2007 for the Caribbean Lotto; that the controversial Digicel contract has been favourably revised: that the path for the future can be guided by a realistic business plan and that the long overdue examination of the structure of West Indies Cricket, which is perhaps the most fundamental initiative of them all, is fully under way.

These are conditions precedent to any serious expectations that West Indies Cricket can be restored to its former glory. Unfortunately, without foundation and structure, many have behaved like crabs in a barrel, who fight because they do not know how to get out of the barrel. Now, hopefully, that will begin to change for we have a road map.

So it has not been smooth sailing and there have been very difficult moments. I have no apologies for this, for our structure has outlived its usefulness with its limitations and qualitative shortcomings. It is a sad truth that it is virtually impossible to discuss any serious matter at board level without having this leaked to the media. On one occasion a sensitive decision was leaked and reproduced in the media while the meeting which took the decision was still in progress. At another level, one of our independent members was sufficiently moved recently to write to another director who was the source of some 14 emails sent over eight days to remind him that our role is to serve West Indies cricket rather than feed individual egos and that behaviour is all part of a deliberately disruptive pattern. Fortunately, it comes from a very small pocket of the board.

So the governance/constitutional exercise now taking place is of critical importance and cannot be over emphasised for I am convinced that without changes to the structure in place everything else would have been in vain. The ultimate challenge then is one to which you the people who love cricket in the West Indies must respond.

The WICB has opened the door for fundamental change, the Patterson Committee is in place to facilitate a new direction now, you must ensure that the process of consultation be widespread, constructive and successful.

I say farewell. I thank PM Keith Mitchell of Grenada who, as chairman of the caricom prime ministerial sub-committee on cricket, has been of tremendous assistance in mobilising the support of Caribbean prime ministers. I thank so many of you on the board for your support. I thank the CEO and his team which I am confident will serve you well and wish the new President and his administration every success."