Windies face pressure from worried sponsors

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), reeling from the fallout from the team's withdrawal from the tour of India, is facing fresh pressure from its worried commercial and broadcast partners.

West Indies cricket was plunged into a major crisis after the tourists abandoned their series in India over a protracted payment dispute between the players and their board.

The Indian cricket board (BCCI), the most powerful body in the sport, responded by suspending all future tours with the Caribbean team and beginning legal action against the WICB - moves that could have a devastating financial impact.

Oliver McIntosh chief executive officer of Digicel Sportsmax, the pan-Caribbean sports television network, says he is worried about the forthcoming West Indies tour of South Africa and says the WICB needs to undergo serious changes.

'We are due to broadcast West Indies tour of South Africa in December and January. We have invested a lot of money in the rights and in the talent. We have started marketing it, we have sponsors on board and if that doesn't happen, you totally retract, you have to go back to sponsors and give back money,' he said. 'We are worried. It does impact our audience. If West Indies cricket is no longer on, that is a big blow for us, a big blow.'

Changes

While in the past governments in the Caribbean have intervened in the various crises that have afflicted West Indies, McIntosh says that it is sponsors and other backers who need to start pushing the WICB to make major changes.

'What has to happen in this case is that the private interests have to get involved and say, 'Look, if I have a stake here, if you want me to stay involved and want me to continue to help funding the cricket, this is how it has to go',' he said.

Telecommunications company Digicel, which recently bought Sportsmax, is well established as the main backer of West Indies cricket and is likely to sit down with the WICB in the near future.

'Like all cricket fans, we're disappointed when matches don't happen,' Digicel said in a statement yesterday. 'To be clear, our contract is with the WICB. And it is with the WICB that we must have a discussion. As such, we will not be commenting for the time being.'

While several efforts have been made to reform the WICB during the past two decades of decline on the field, and Twenty20 cricket has enjoyed plenty of success in the region, conflicts have continued throughout different leaderships.

McIntosh believes that major reform is needed. 'The board has to be restructured. You need to get some independent people on the board who are not going to run it on a country basis. Whenever there is a new president elected and he is from Jamaica, then the CEO comes from Jamaica and then if he's from St Lucia then it's a StLucian.
gulf-daily-news.com

It is the only way forward and as I have banged on, outsource the the business element, rationalise the structure for efficiency and cost savings as per the Wilkins report, set down clear rules and time limits for leadership roles.

For example a President's term is limited to 4 years and although he can have future terms, this cannot happen for at elast 4 years after his last stint. CEO is part of the outsourced function and if it remains in house, there has to be an independent selection process. This independent source should come from within the business element (already outsourced).

Kween, not WICBitches!    ::LOL::

Quote:It is the only way forward and as I have banged on, outsource the the business element, rationalise the structure for efficiency and cost savings as per the Wilkins report, set down clear rules and time limits for leadership roles.

For example a President's term is limited to 4 years and although he can have future terms, this cannot happen for at elast 4 years after his last stint. CEO is part of the outsourced function and if it remains in house, there has to be an independent selection process. This independent source should come from within the business element (already outsourced).

we have been out-sourcing and liberalizing public social resources into economic relations for so long, yet the situation gets worse all the time.  we have privatized almost everything in life by now, gutted the public component in almost everything and placed them into private hands-outsourcing.... yet economic/social problems only get worse.

they told us that privatization was the way to improve the economy and the public services they were taking over, to introduce efficiencies that the private sector were able to introduce, not government control in the name of the people..which would soon enough cut the cost of the services.  but instead the prices for the services have soared. post office, licensing, water, electricity..all public services built up and paid for by public taxes are now profit centres for private industry.  they lied boldy to hide their theft

it should be clear by now that outsourcing is comprised only of capitalist economic 'tactics' not basic solution to any and all social issues. 

in fact what these 'tactics' indeed are, are corporate capitalist reaction to falling profits in their regular profit areas.  as a result they have invaded the public domain and are privatizing everything, all public resources, with governmental collusion, at the expense of the people. the corporate elites, have invaded the entire public domain, looking for profits.  they call this liberalizing economics or economic reform..or neo liberalism.

but these tactics are not reformist at all but capitalist expansion.  so the essentials of life like heat, water, electricity,post office  etc., are now privatized and so expensive that there availability is now almost priced out of the hands of ordinary people... like in Detroit USA where water to live is no longer guaranteed for the people due to its cost and their collective bankruptcy..a bankruptcy they did not  cause.

the problem is the privatizing itself which worsens the previous problems that gave rise to the outsourcing.  in fact the beneficiaries of the outsourcing.. the corporations and their system..  are the cause of the problems that gave rise to the outsourcing in the first place.  they caused the problem directly or indirectly, then hypocritically raised the solution as outsourcing... and benefit, from outsourcing, that is make excess profits from the outsourcing itself.

the solution is not neo liberalism but the development of the public interest in each and every situation as the solution itself.  and that indeed is the solution not outsourcing.

a minority bureaucracy has substituted its minority survival interest for the basic majority purpose of the institution it runs.

the majority purpose is the basis on which the institution came into being and what its bureaucracy is supposed to address in its routine function.  the cricket is a majority interest the wicb bureaucracy is supposed to address in all its developmental and maintenance aspects in its routine functions.  that is what they are there for to mind and develop the public interest.  but that is not what they end up doing.

they end up serving the status quo which is a minority interest that dominates the society.  they become part of that status quo, parasitic, using the institution itself as source of a great and elite life for themselves, squeezing the process they mind..actually mining it.. for their means of subsistence for they life they live. 

the money earned by the profitable part of their process they disburse among themselves in the largest measures, leaving as small a pittance as they can get away with, for those who do the work.  and when normal parameters of the money flow are exhausted the bureaucracy engages in all manner of subterfuge and betrayals to get more to maintain themselves at the top of the heap.

in this way the bureaucratic interest in any thing at all diverges away from the bottom of their institution and a war ensues between the two parts that ultimately requires fundamental change to restore the public interest, the inherently democratic interest that if and when fully implemented solves the basic problem in the way things are run.

the answer is not outsourcing but the full implementation of the public interest in the cricket...which means a reduction or elimination of the bureaucracy..the wicb in this case..and an administrative organization that enshrines the popular interest in principle and action and organizational formation, in replacement of the rotten bureaucracy that now occupies the cricket

Quote:While several efforts have been made to reform the WICB during the past two decades of decline on the field, and Twenty20 cricket has enjoyed plenty of success in the region, conflicts have continued throughout different leaderships.

look at the luke warm response of the regional governments and CARICOM.  some of them have spoken..or was it just the Grenadian leader.. but there was no weight, urgency and definite intent to what I saw from them.  Skameron goes on as usual

whoever is pissed at the wicb from the top can be pissed only about Skameron's tactics.  he could have handled it better from the stand point of their collective interest

any change they want or would contribute to would be the election of a wcb leader no less committed to the elitist interest but much more polished in his execution or handling of such interest.  skameron quickly has turned into an unsophisticated, ego-driven skunt who has tied up on the tree branch, the rope that is going to pop his own skunt neck
::LOL:: ::LOL:: ::LOL::

Arrogance is the order of the day....they run the board like a cake shop....or even worse.