Lara's call for freedom

In spite of his position as the most identifiable and potentially most influential individual in West Indies cricket, Brian Lara has seldom been inclined to publicly air his views on the many complex and diverse issues that affect it.

He might have been wary that his words would be misinterpreted. Perhaps he didn't want to crush any more corns for he had, after all, been involved in enough controversy for one career. Now, as captain for the third time, entrusted with the responsibility of guiding West Indies cricket out of the mire that has consumed it for so long, Lara has acknowledged that this involves more than simply picking teams, tossing the coin, setting fields and making bowling changes.

Even before his recall to the helm, he spoke repeatedly and enthusiastically of the talented emerging young players in the region and of his aim to use his experience to help them develop. He has subsequently said that he sees success in his third coming as skipper as "producing a leader who will be able to take over".

As was evident in his address at the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) awards function at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre recently, Lara also recognises that the revival depends as much on factors off the field as on it.

He concentrated in his talk mainly on one area, sponsorship - or, to be more specific and to use his words, "the shackles of sponsorship" and the "dependency" of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) on foreign backers.

It was not to say Lara was ungrateful. He paid due tribute to Cable & Wireless for their 18 years' support and to Digicel which replaced them two years ago.

On the surface, his stance seemed contradictory on two counts. Even with sponsorship, the WICB is close to US$20 million in the red and needs every dollar it can get while Lara himself has personally benefited from the involvement of both telecommunications companies. Under his personal endorsement contract, his image adorns tv and media advertisements and billboards supporting bmobile, the Cable & Wireless brand.

As captain of the West Indies team, he is bedecked in Digicel kit during every international series. Yet it is precisely because there are such external influences that Lara put forward his proposal to encourage more financial involvement from the millions of day-to-day, cricket-mad West Indians, at home and abroad.

The captain based the idea of opening up supporters' membership of US$20 a year on the example of such schemes at two of the wealthiest clubs in different sports on either side of the Atlantic - the Green Bay Packers of American football and Barcelona of Spanish soccer. He spoke of Barcelona's 900,000 members and the vast sums they contribute every year to the club. No one would expect such an influx from Caribbean people but, properly organised and administered, it could raise, at a conservative estimate, in the region of US$2 million a year for the WICB.

That would be enough to sustain the first-class tournament at least. And it would have the psychological advantage of giving the people a sense of ownership of their game that now seems to be held by an Irish company and, more recently, a Texan billionaire.

Lara's idea is not entirely new. Lately, the formation of the Legends in Barbados - a company comprising all those who have represented the West Indies in Test cricket - aims to raise interest in and money for the game.

But previous attempts to organise supporters groups have come to nothing. Given the growing number of fans that travel between the territories for international, and even regional cricket, it is difficult to understand why - except when the record of the WICB's marketing department is taken into account.

This is a scheme that should have been running from way back. There are others too that the WICB and the territorial associations could benefit from by having their brighter sparks spend a week or so at Green Bay and Barcelona - or, for that matter, the imaginative cricket state teams in Australia and elsewhere.

Lara's contention that the WICB should get away from complete reliance on sponsorship - and, more especially, foreign sponsorship - might well have been prompted by the fierce war between Cable & Wireless and Digicel that divided board and players, player and player. West Indies cricket was caught in the crossfire and no one more than Lara himself. Nor is it yet over.

There have been charges of ambush marketing during this season's series against Zimbabwe and India and reports, noted with concern by members of the WICB's cricket committee, that some players have been signed up by a Digicel competitor, in other words Cable & Wireless. That situation was very much of the WICB's own making. Once bitten, it is safe to assume that it won't arise again.

If it did, it would not be necessarily vastly different between competing West Indian sponsors but, at least, they would likely be more understanding of the need to save the game from collateral damage.

In the meantime, Lara's prodding might just be the catalyst for Ken Gordon to activate the Green Bay-Barcelona plan and to light a fire under his moribund marketing section to come up with other devices to more thoroughly incorporate the wider cricket public into the game they so passionately follow and support so that the "dependency" on sponsorship is reduced. The revival of the team on the field has started. It has to be complemented off it.