How not to run a sporting organisation

The evidence grows daily and conclusively that West Indies cricket can only slide further down the slope to oblivion under the muddled direction of those who run the day-to-day affairs of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

While the players were suffering yet another hiding in the Test series against England this past month, their shortcomings were nothing compared to the continuing ineptitude of the board back home. In the short time the team has been in England, yet more new instances of maladministration have been added to the manual on how not to run a sporting organisation.

The controversial and disruptive chaos over the change in captaincy from Test to limited-overs team has coincided with the inability to transport replacement players from the Caribbean any quicker than they once were by ship. There has been confusion over the appointment of an allegedly suspended player as the vice-captain of an unnecessary "A" team tour of volatile Zimbabwe that the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) is adamant its members are not undertaking on grounds of security.

And, just to keep the pot boiling, the distinguished arbitrators, who have been kept busy repeatedly ruling on one silly dispute after another in favour of the WIPA over the WICB, have gone the same way in declaring the present tour outside the International Cricket Council (ICC) future tours progamme (FTP) and therefore open to different negotiations over pay and conditions.

Not surprisingly, the members of the WICB's executive that overruled the selectors' choice of Chris Gayle as the captain for the second half of the England tour, in favour of the retention of Daren Ganga, and then switched again under pressure from the panel, remain in their posts. They are at ease with such embarrassment.

So too are those who so badly misread the FTP issue, not least those who, according to the arbitrators' report, attempted to discredit the WICB's former cricket operations manager Zoral Bartley's submissions to the panel.

It revealed that corporate services manager Tony Deyal, who has been to the forefront of WICB's positions since he took up his post a year ago, argued that Barthley "did not have the power or the authority to give the opinions which he gave".

To the contrary, Barbados chief justice Sir David Simmons and his fellow arbitrators established that Barthley was "a pivotal figure" in the board and added that they found it "somewhat disconcerting that WICB should now seek to impugn Mr Barthley's authority". "His input on the international programme was obviously crucial to the parties" deliberations and negotiations," the report stated. "It does not now lie in the mouth of WICB to say otherwise."

So Deyal could well find himself having to do some explaining to his employers, except that they happen to be those who have indulged in similar blunders themselves without having to answer to anyone.

It would also be interesting to hear Tony Howard, the cricket operations manager, expand on his given reason for the late departure for England of the limited-overs players, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith and Austin Richards.

It was, he is quoted as saying, because of a lack of flights. The last time I checked, there were at least three daily out of Barbados and Antigua for Gatwick. All of these are indicative of a general malaise that permeates all levels, including the team. They have contributed to the decline that is now so entrenched it is difficult to know how it will be checked.

The latest drubbing by England is the fourth in successive series since 2000. The record over the 17 Tests in that time is one win against 13 defeats. It is two years and 11 Tests since a win of any kind.

Mike Selvey, the former England Test player and not one for gloating overstatement, described this year's debacle in the Guardian newspaper as "quite the most drab, dismal, lack-lustre, bland, interminable, uninspiring series in recent memory, with the general standard of play all too often plumbing the depths of acceptability for international cricket".

While he did, at least, acknowledge that not all of it was from the West Indies, his point could not be argued. It was widely shared by those who once thrilled to the excitement of the great West Indies teams under Worrell, Sobers, Lloyd and Richards. So what next?

The report of the Patterson committee, headed by the former Jamaica prime minister, is due out this week and, hopefully, will make comprehensive recommendations for restructuring of the WICB that will end the administrative nonsense that continues to undermine the game. But more urgent short-term measures are required to prevent the West Indies repeatedly folding in the face of decent opposition. An "A" team to Zimbabwe, where standards are appreciably lower than they presently are even in the Caribbean, is certainly not an answer.

The next three items on the FTP are Tests and ODIs against South Africa in South Africa in December and January and Sri Lanka and Australia in the Caribbean next March through June. There are no more formidable opponents in world cricket at present. Unless the team is properly prepared to meet the challenge another round of demoralising defeats is certain and West Indies cricket will slip further towards a state of irrelevancy.

Short of following the advice of the Jamaica Gleaner, seriously presented in an editorial after the World Cup, and withdraw from Test cricket for the next three years while we reorganise and regroup, a squad of the 20 to 25 best, most promising and most committed players should be selected after the England tour and placed on year-long professional contracts. They would assemble during the week at an appointed, central venue to be put through a concentrated regime of practice and training under a head coach and a support staff. These would include specialists in batting, bowling and fielding along with experts in such areas as nutrition and psychology.

They would be free to return to their homes over the weekend and encouraged to participate in their domestic club competitions. They, of course, would join their territorial teams for the Carib Beer and KFC Cup series.

It is an extravagant scheme requiring considerable investment and planning. But Sir Allen Stanford has done something almost identical in his Antigua and, if the American billionaire's pockets are deeper than anyone else's in these small territories, a collaborative effort should not be beyond governments and corporations that can appreciate the significance of the game to the West Indies.

It's either that or more misery.