Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
ONE OF the West Indies Cricket Board's objectives for the first half of the year is a restructuring of the board itself and, all things considered, that is a good move.
According to president Ken Gordon, such a move to include four additional directors will, among other things, enhance the board's ability to raise funds and God knows, the board needs all the help it can get in finding the funds necessary to re-establish the West Indies team as one of the best in the world.
Finding the funds, however, is one thing. How the funds are spent is something else altogether and it is good to hear that the board will also be looking at its staff in the restructuring programme.
The West Indies board's staff is simply too large. Too many positions overlap, too many of its coaches do nothing for most of the year, too many of it members, and particularly so those in marketing, travel around the region for Test matches, and without even looking at the board's failure to assist the clubs, in comparison to what is spent on developing the game and the young players, too much of the board's money is spent on administration.
When it comes to administration, West Indies cricket is top heavy. West Indies cricket, unlike India, Australia, England and South Africa, cannot afford the cost of running such an administration and it is good to hear that the board will be looking at its staff in a bid to make it leaner, less costly and more productive.
Hopefully something will really be done about it - that it is not just a case of talk and little or no action.
RETURN TO GLORY DAYS
For West Indies cricket to return to its glory days or near to those days, however, there also needs to be a re-positioning of the game in the region and some how, some way, the board has to find the money to do that.
Once upon a time, cricket, based on those who played the game and who watched the game, was the most popular sport in the region. That, however, and unfortunately so, is not so today.
Although cricket still has a special place in the hearts of many West Indians and even though, based on their talk if not their support, so many are still passionate about it, when it comes to participation and spectator support, it has slipped dramatically.
That is certainly so in Jamaica and to the point where less and less youngsters are playing the game and where, but for a few rural areas, but for a place like south St. Elizabeth where thousands of spectators turn out every Sunday to watch small villages oppose each other, only a few diehards are on hand to watch school cricket, club cricket and even matches involving the national team.
Over the years there have been many reasons put forward for the decline in both areas and there are two which seem more likely than others.
One is that West Indians really do not love sport as much as they love winning - and the West Indies team has not been winning for a long time.
NO MONEY FOR CLUB CRICKET
The other is that while there is good money for those who represent the West Indies, there is little or no money for those who represent their territories and certainly in Jamaica, unlike a sport like football where players are paid to play club football, there is no money for those who play club cricket.
The board and its affiliates therefore need to find the money to spread the gospel of the game - to encourage people, young and old, to play the game for the love of it, for the enjoyment it provides and to pay those who deserve to be paid - if not now those who represent the clubs, certainly those with the skill to represent the territories.
Times have changed, and the board has to recognise it and try to do something about it - either that or, remembering that you cannot produce something strong out of something weak, the West Indies team, regardless of all the other plans and programmes, will remain weak.
Where as years ago cricket was basically the sport to play and the one to watch, people now have many different options. Where as years ago when sport was strictly amateur and money did not mean that much, today sport is professional, money means a lot, and cricketers are not prepared to train and practice, play Saturday and Sunday after Saturday and Sunday without some sort of compensation and to represent their territories for little or no money.
