Interview With Sir Conrad Hunte

The 65th annual general meeting of the Barbados Cricket Association comes off on Tuesday at the Sherbourne Conference Centre. SUNSPORT's Haydn Gill interviews Sir Conrad Hunte who is challenging Tony Marshall for the BCA presidency.

Q: The annual general meeting of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) has been delayed by about 2 1/2 months. What effect, if any, do you think the delay will have on your chances to win the presidency?

A: I think we are all concerned, most of all, about the effect the delay would have had on our cricket and its administration. With regard to the presidency, the unfortunate delay did mean a halt in the momentum that was going. On the whole, I suspect the hiatus has not affected the likely outcome of this contest.

During the period, I was able to review where we were and to reformulate a plan and a strategy that will help me in my bid to win the presidency.

Q: Were you able to meet with your team to come up with any further plans?

A: People are concerned and are taking important notice of this aspect of a team. I want to take the opportunity to inform everyone that I'm not so much bringing a team as building a team. Because of my own experience in all parts of the world, I have learnt that the effectiveness of any enterprise is a function of team effort and co-operation. Our cricket is no different.

When I was making a considered bid for the presidency, I knew I needed a team effort if it was going to be successful. That's why I had this approach of building a team and therefore, during the time of the delay, we were able to work together, meet together and plan together in order to further our objectives of making Barbados cricket strong,

Q: There was a letter to the editor in the Press by a John Jones which was critical over your absence from the BCA's extraordinary general meeting on September 22. How would you respond to that?

A: I'm very glad you raised that and described the writer as "a John Jones", because it gives me a way and method of answering the letter.

I'm a director of a national corporation in America. It is headquartered in Washington, but it is incorporated in the state of New York and it has international outreach. At every annual general meeting, we set up four meetings we are mandated to have in the next 12 months. So from more than a year ago, I was due to meet with our board of directors on that weekend (September 18-22). I waited until the very last moment until I knew when the AGM was set for July 29 before confirming my attendance at my September board of directors meeting.

Through no fault of mine, the AGM was aborted and it necessitated an extraordinary general meeting on September 22 to set the date for the AGM on Tuesday. In all good conscience I could not renege on my prior engagement. I was committed and that's why I was unavoidably absent from the BCA's meeting.

But let me say this, it is a pity that someone would stoop so low as to use a fictitious name to put a letter like that in a national newspaper without knowing the facts.

Q: At the press conference in which you announced your intention to vie for the post of president, you mentioned that one of your aims is to put the "C" (cricket) back into the BCA.

Over a period of time, one can look at the infrastructure at Kensington and measure the development. One can look at financial statements over a period of time and measure the improvements. How does one measure the development of cricket over a period of time?

A: In the case of the finances, I don't want to deal in a public forum with too much detail since I am an honorary life member of the BCA. But, as one who has been kept informed with what is happening, I feel the finances are not as rosy as they look on paper and that there are some serious issues we have to address as an association.

I agree that Kensington is looking better than it has ever looked before. I was thrilled myself. There has been much improvement at the plant, but there are three aspects of an enterprise. You have the plant, yes, but you also have the people and the product.

In my view, in the last few years, the product has suffered seriously. You can measure that by the evidence that exists.

West Indies' cricket is at its lowest ebb. In terms of Barbados' cricket, although we won the Busta Cup and the Nortel, very few of the regional players who have dominated at that level have gone on to dominate at international level. That is the real acid test. It means something is missing.

How do you measure the progress? First of all there is a need for improvement. Therefore, you have got to set in place structures and encourage initiative.

If elected, I would concentrate on three important things. One is club cricket. It has to be revitalised. Secondly, the schools' system has to be restructured. Thirdly, the preparation of all Barbados teams - under-15, under-19 and senior - needs to be provided with the resources to develop the all-round (not just cricketing) skills of all our national representatives, especially our mental and psychological toughness.

Q: You've talked about putting structures in place. I know you are in favour of an academy. If elected, how would you plan to set up one and have it run?

A: When I look at an academy, I look not so much at a building, but a programme.

Around Barbados, there are a lot of community centres and schools which are not occupied after 3 p.m. I've already spoken to my friends, Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge. They have also been recruited to work with Barbados' cricket. They are connected to the Gems Project. We have discussed the establishment of an experiment of six regions: north, south, east, west, one rural and one special urban. We will use community centres to bring 24 players - 12 from the under-13/under-15 and 12 from under-17/under-19 - from those six areas.

We will conduct an all-year round programme - not when they are playing cricket - but during the off-season. We will include a focus on ancillary skills that today's modern cricketer requires: public speaking, courtesy, etiquette, skills analysis and the use of videos. That's an academy.

At the national level, we will work with the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill to put in place similar structures.

Q: You've spent seven years in South Africa developing their cricket. How does the administration of cricket at provincial level there and even club level compare with the administration of cricket in Barbados?

A: I wish we had some of the facilities that they have in South Africa. Even ordinary schools in South Africa, their fields are like lawns. They are beautifully manicured. They have covers for every school; clubs similarly.

The clubs have coaches attached to them. I'm going to encourage that in Barbados. The provinces have on their roll, 15 to 20 players full-time. Therefore, they can do a lot of things during the course of the season. In the off-season, they do other things. Some are in jobs, some are not.

In the national squad, it is the same thing. They are contracted for the whole year. Therefore, they have the capacity to do many more things that we cannot do here. We can't quite match that yet, but because of our natural talent, we can do some things that can begin to get our cricket to where it was before.

Q: When do you envisage we will be able to do things the way they do?

A: If elected, I would like to propose, not immediately but within a year, that we can have 15 to 20 of the best Barbados players contracted with the BCA.

We may not be able to employ them professionally, but we will see whether or not the Government and private sector can employ some of these players and give them off-time in order to practise and to do something that we are going to need them to do.

The National Housing Corporation has got Corey Collymore employed and the Gems people have got Ryan Hurley and others employed. There is already a start. If we can do that, I think these players will be more available for us to work with them so that they play more cricket than they play now.

The Barbados team is not playing enough cricket to rise to excellence. The people at club level are not playing enough cricket to rise to excellence. A lot of them do not turn up for practice. We need to find a way for them to play more cricket at the highest level for the quality to improve.

Q: It's generally accepted that the quality of cricket at the Division 1 level has been on the decline. One of the reasons is perhaps the impaired pitches. I know you favour covers, but has consideration been given to changing the timing of the season to the early part of the year?

A: This has been a burning issue for a long, long time. The season's timing is a historical bequest of the time when sugar was king in Barbados and the harvesting of the crop took precedence. We, in conjunction with the clubs, are very willing to look at whether such a move is appropriate.

Even if we keep it as it is now, covers, I think, will help. In a number of cases, even though it rained, had the wicket been good, we would still have had cricket. Covers are going to be a very important aspect of the development of the quality of Barbados' cricket.

Q: Finally, why should the BCA membership elect Sir Conrad Hunte as president.

A: Well let me try and suggest why. There is need for an injection of something new into cricket, period, both in Barbados and the West Indies. This injection must address each of the three elements of our enterprise: the plant, the product and the people.

It seems to me that the current board has been a fractured board, judging from the extraordinary general meeting at Sherbourne in June and the most recent one at Lester Vaughan (School), the continuous flow of information into the public domain from within the board and the very public statements of members of this and past boards.

Anyone who is going to take Barbados cricket into the millennium must master three important principles.

The person must be a master of the technical elements of the enterprise. As a former West Indies vice-captain under Sir Frank Worrell and under Sir Garfield Sobers and one who has played at the highest level with a creditable record, I meet that requirement.

Secondly, since no individual can have all the qualities and skills needed to lead an organisation like the BCA, the person who would lead Barbados' cricket must manage through people.

I have already identified and had pledges of support from many able individuals, some willing to offer themselves for service on the board, some willing to serve on committees, some willing to serve in other ways. Together with these members of the association I am confident we can carry Barbados cricket forward to its rightful place.

Thirdly, especially in light of the situation with the current board, the leader must master conflict resolution and be able to forge harmonious relationships across a wider variety of perspectives. He must be able to inspire and motivate every member of the enterprise to feel an integral and important part of the enterprise.

That's mainly what I have been doing for the last seven years in South Africa. And I'm sure you are familiar enough with South Africa's history to understand that the gaps and differences that I encountered and successfully bridged were of an altogether greater dimension and scope than those we have to deal with at home here in Barbados.

For these reasons I think I qualify very much and hope that the members of the BCA, who in the final analysis must make the decision, will see it likewise.