Tony Becca, Contributor

ACCORDING TO Brian Lara and Michael Holding, as well as many others of far less reputation with bat or ball, the problem with West Indies cricket is the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

According to the great batsman and the great bowler, the board has failed West Indies cricket because, over the years, it has failed to plan - to come up with a plan of development that should have provided replacements for the stars leading up to the early 1990s and one that should develop the quality players that can take West Indies cricket back to the top.

According to Lara and Holding, the board needs a plan of development - a plan that should start at the grassroots, in the schools and in the clubs.

And they are right. West Indies cricket needs a plan and it needs a few people who are capable, who are passionate enough, and who are committed to carry out that plan if it is to really turn the corner and make the people of the West Indies as proud, or even nearly as proud as they were once upon a time - and for a long time at that.

Over the past 10 years the West Indies, for example, have had four presidents and, but for Pat Rousseau who had a plan, but who was forced to resign when he fired the manager for incompetence, none of them had a plan.

Fighting

Instead of making plans in an effort to change the fortunes of the West Indies team, Wes Hall and Teddy Griffith seemed to have spent their time fighting the sponsors and the players association, and as far as he is concerned, Ken Gordon has been spending his time fighting the players association, the selectors and when it comes to who should be the captain of the team, even his own board and the players themselves.

With the board and its members, the players association, the selectors and the players all at daggers drawn to the point where they are apparently waiting and itching for a fight, West Indies cricket has suffered over the past 12 or 15 years, and it has suffered so much that people are not only talking about changing the structure, but suggesting that the governments, the regional governments, should get involved.

That, however, is not the answer.

The present structure which sees those in cricket voting into office those who they believe should run the game is good enough.

The problem with cricket in the region is not the structure. It is the people in charge and the people in charge are not good enough because cricket has lost its support around the region. So much so that there are not many still in the game with the competence, the knowledge and the passion for the game to lead it.

In the recent past, we have gone for a businessman with some connection through service to the game, we have gone for an illustrious past player, we have gone for a past player/businessman, today we have a straight businessman with no connection to the game and, but for Rousseau's term, nothing changed or has changed in West Indies cricket.

Call for restructuring

That may be why there is the call for the restructuring of West Indies cricket and for the governments to get involved - to take over.

That, however, and in the best interest of the game, thank god for it, should not now be necessary.

West Indies cricket, it appears, has found a man with all the credentials, with all the passion to lead it forward.

Just as I was thinking who should be the next president, Julian Hunte, a former vice president of the board who had resigned after representing St. Lucia as its ambassador at the United Nations, appeared almost from nowhere.

Hunte is the only nominee for the post, he is supported by Jamaica, Guyana, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands, he is set to be elected as the new president of the board in a few weeks time, and the West Indies board could not find a better man to be its president - and especially so at this time.

A former St. Lucian cricketer, the 67-year-old Hunte, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Julian R. Hunte Group of Companies, has a record of service during which he served, for example, as a councillor, as mayor of Castries, as a Member of Parliament, as Leader of the Opposition, as Foreign Minister, as chairman of the UN General Assembly, as a director of both the St. Lucia Development Bank and of the National Commercial Bank of St. Lucia, and as president of the St. Lucia and of the Windward Islands cricket associations.

According to Hunte, who served West Indies cricket for more than 30 years under the presidency of Cecil Marley, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, Allan Rae, Clyde Walcott, Peter Short and Rousseau, he had given up hope of becoming president ofthe board, and it will be an honour for him to serve.

To he who thought of him, to he who convinced him to come back, well done.

Hunte knows the game, and he knows the importance of planning and the importance of working hard, he has a passion for the sport, and most importantly, he knows the importance of teamwork to success. He is also not too big to ask for help.

If anyone can bring back the harmony and then the success to West Indies cricket, Hunte, a simple, quiet man, seems to be the one.