KINGSTON–A report on the state of West Indies cricket is strongly recommending the immediate dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), the five member Cricket Review Panel appointed by the Caricom Sub-committee of Cricket Governance, is recommending the appointment of an interim board to run the affairs of the sport in the region.
The report, which was made public during a live news conference in Grenada on Wednesday 4th November 2015, calls for a the creation of a new governance and management structure for cricket in the region as well as a new set of criteria for the selection of the management and board members of WICB.
Meantime, president of WICB Dave Cameron has promised a "full response" to the report.The Trinidad Guardian is happy to publish the final article of its six part series of the complete report.Following yesterday's publication of Part V, here's Part VI.
Based on a socio-economic and legal analysis, the Panel holds that cricket in the West Indies is a public good that is managed by a private company.Two of the three defining characteristics of a "public good" are displayed in West Indies Cricket: non-rivalry and non-excludability.
Non � rivalry means one person consuming the good does not prevent another person doing so; while non-excludability means if one person consumes the good, it is impossible to stop another person from doing so.
The Supreme Court of India, in a judgment of 22 January 2015, and sitting in a matter which involved the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), had much to say which is of relevance to the application of the concept of a public good to West Indies Cricket, viz.:
"any organization or entity that has such pervasive control over the game and its affairs as can make dreams end up in smoke or come true cannot be said to be undertaking any private activity. The functions of the Board are clearly public functions which ... remain in the nature of public functions, no matter discharged by a society registered under the Registration of Societies Act. Suffice it to say that if the government not only allows an autonomous/private body to discharge functions which it could in law take over or regulate but even lends its assistance to such a non-government body to undertake such functions which by their very nature are public functions, it cannot be said that the functions are not public functions or that the entity discharging the same is not answerable on the standards generally applicable to judicial review of State action."
We are persuaded as to the relevance and applicability of this Indian Supreme Court decision on cricket as a public good, to the management of West Indies cricket.
The Panel recommends further legal research be done into this matter, to ascertain whether the current corporate structure of the WICB, or with recommended amendments, is capable of satisfying the requirements we have outlined for a modern professional and accountable institution; or alternatively advice on the creation of an alternate institutional structure.
Summary Statement
We have reviewed the state of West Indies Cricket, particularly its governance arrangements and conclude that the challenges lie not specifically with the leadership per se, but with a governance structure that is antiquated and incapable of addressing the social, economic and cultural realities of cricket in the twenty first century Caribbean.
Cricket is now an economic subsector and a multi-billion dollar international sporting and business industry.The Caribbean is part of the global political economy of cricket, and to continue with anachronistic, unproductive governance arrangements will force a further marginalization of our relevance and involvement.
We firmly believe that this archaic structure continues to support particular types of governance practices that do not recognize that in the production of cricket, the interests of the stakeholders � not only those of the shareholders � are equally valid and cannot be ignored.
The extant governance arrangements are oblivious to, and/or out of touch with the changes in the Caribbean and the international game and Caribbean societies.The WICB and Territorial Boards have been able to ignore the extent to which their operations lack transparency and accountability because the current structures do not respect these basic tenets of good governance within their operations.
The WICB and its attendant executive, managerial and administrative frameworks are incapable of turning around West Indies Cricket. The evidence of this is the state and status of West Indies Cricket which we have documented.
Our main recommendation is that the Board should be immediately dissolved and all current members resign while an Interim Board is selected to work with a change management expert to install a new governance framework.
The members of the Cricket Review Panel expresses its gratitude to the Cricket Governance Committee, its Chairman, Dr the Hon Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, and the management of the WICB for the confidence reposed in us to constitute this Panel.
We recognize that, over the last few months, we have covered a lot of ground and we believe that we have returned with a menu of recommendations to introduce long-term and meaningful transformational change for the good of West Indies cricket, its shareholders and stakeholders, and Caribbean societies.
Effecting this process of transformation requires considerable work, including at the level of the Territorial Boards.The Panel is committed to the change process outlined and to see the Great Game flourish in the West Indies in the future. Cricket is a unifying force in the Caribbean, a game we all love and cherish, and a growing economic subsector in our societies.
CMC
Prime Ministerial Committee
Eudine Barriteau Chair
Sir Dennis Byron Member
Dwain Gill Member
Deryck Murray Member
Warren Smith Member