Foundation for success not in place

Dec 31, 2009 Sports

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Says new WICB CEO Dr Hillarie

A former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth and Sports in St Lucia, the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Dr Ernest Hillarie sounded every bit a politician as he delivered the feature address at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) annual Awards Ceremony on Tuesday night.
The tough talking St Lucian touched on a number of issues affecting West Indies cricket during his speech at the Uman Yana and paid particular attention to the shift from cricketing considerations to commercial considerations which is affecting how cricket is scheduled in the ‘smaller’ cricketing nations like the West Indies.
Dr Hilarie told the gathering, which included Guyana’s Sports Minister Dr Frank Anthony, Director of Sports Neil Kumar, Minister of Housing and Water Irfan Ali and former West Indies Test players Ivor Mendonca, Roger Harper, Reon King and Clyde Butts, that the super powers in Cricket like India along with the Broadcasters had a massive say in the scheduling of matches in next year’s ICC 20/20 World Cup in the West Indies.
Dr Anthony had stated that Guyana was promised 10 matches but when the fixtures were officially released in St Lucia, only 6 matches and 3 days of Cricket was allocated for Guyana including the opening matches on April 30.
Hillarie, who again took a swipe at the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) for what he described at their confrontational style and use of the media to air grievances with the WICB, explained that because huge sums of money was paid to the ICC for the broadcast rights, the broadcasters had a major say in the timing of matches since night games in the West Indies, which would have been ideal for the fans at the ground would have meant over a billion viewers in India possibly not watching since it would have been 03:00hrs in the morning there.
The time difference and clout by the Broadcasters have also seen the Women’s semi-finals and final of the 20/20 World Cup being played in the evening as the ‘feature’ match after the completion of the men’s semis and final.
For all his tough talking Hillaire conceded that Boards like the West Indies have little say because of their financial status and inability to attract large TV audiences and said ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’ adding that cricket globally has changed and the West Indies must adapt to those changes or be left behind.
“There are rapid changes in International Cricket which provides new challenges for the WICB. The WICB and the regional boards have to adapt or die since its imperative that we have to move towards modernizing the way we operate to be successful,” the CEO stressed.
Dr Hillaire also placed some of the blame on the rapid demise of the game in the region
on his predecessors who managed the affairs of the WICB and said that the Caribbean people should not expect immediate success since the foundation for success is not in place.
He said that the cultural attitude of this generation is another reason for the predicament West Indies cricket is in at present since most of the young cricketers in the region, like most young people today, have very little regard for hard work, discipline, authority figures and nationalist values.
Dr Hillaire said that this cultural change was evident since in the early 1980s when many Caribbean youths lost their identity due to American TV and very few did anything at the time to arrest the problem. “We need to do far more for our youth since many of them have lost their way and this general behavior is also manifesting itself on the cricket field and players are accused of lacking pride in self and country,” he added.
He said that we also have to understand change in World Cricket and stop resisting it while at the same time we need to develop our institutional capacity.
GCB President since 1991, Chetram Singh, conceded that 2009 was a poor year for Guyana’s cricket with no national team winning any regional competition. He said that while the senior team lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the Regional One-Day final, the Guyana under-19 team played beyond expectations and lost to Jamaica in the regional female under-19 competition.
Singh said that the selection of Travis Dowlin, the recall of Narsingh Deonarine and the selections of Trevon Griffith and Keon Joseph were individual achievements which made Guyana proud.
The GCB head said that LBI Hotel and indoor practice facility, which was scheduled to be completed last month, will not be finished in January and should play a major role in the revival of the game on the field.
Sports Minister Dr Anthony once again chided the GCB for not moving with the changing times and urged the local Board to embrace modernization and improving technology. He also urged the GCB to work in partnership with the Government to utilize the Guyana National Stadium more and said that the Government is fully behind the development of cricket, reminding that they played a major role in an Academy at the Stadium during the August vacation.
At a time with the technical inefficiencies and lack of proper concentration is hampering the success of our young cricketers, the Sports Minister raised a few eyebrows among the cricketing pundits when he informed that Cricket USA will fund a 20/20 schools cricket tournament which should attract 150 schools in Guyana.
The Minister also urged the GCB to use technology to help improve cricket in Guyana.
“We have not evolved towards utilizing technology like the rest of the world and I hope the GCB and the Ministry can move in that direction,” Dr Anthony, who stressed the need for more community-based cricket activities to be organized, said.
Giving the vote of thanks on behalf of the Awardees, former GCB Vice President Alvin Johnson gave an impassioned plea to all stake holders to stop the infighting that is affecting Guyana’s cricket and urged them to work together in 2010.
He also suggested that he will be back in the near future to make a contribution to Guyana’s cricket and told the gathering to not ask what the cricket is doing for you but what are you doing for the cricket.
Secretary of the GCB Anand Sanasie delivered the closing remarks at Tuesday’s gathering.
The formal part of the ceremony concluded with the presentation of awards to the respective winners before the function ended with a cocktail reception. (Sean Devers)

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