Incompetent and thoughtless leadership

Saturday, October 08, 2011

We should all be thankful that the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) has at last seen it fit to reverse that outrageous decision made in mid-year to name the players' pavilion at Jamaica's headquarters of cricket, Sabina Park, in honour of former West Indies batsman Mr Lawrence Rowe.

For as was pointed out then, in this space and elsewhere, Mr Rowe's treachery in choosing to lead rebel tours of Apartheid South Africa in the early 1980s had left in the shade his achievements as a cricketer.

We can only agree with the former president of the JCA, Mr Paul Campbell, that the current administration of Mr Lyndel Wright has fallen down badly and embarrassingly in this matter and that "due process was not followed and enough consultation not done..."

Mr Wright tells us that the JCA finally decided to rescind the naming of the players' pavilion because Mr Rowe — despite having issued and read a formal apology on the day he was honoured — told radio interviewer Mrs Dionne Jackson-Miller that in fact he did nothing wrong when he led those tours to South Africa. Indeed, Mr Rowe went so far as to suggest that society would some day accept his actions as heroic "probably 40/50 years from now", and he sought to compare himself to National Hero and 19th-century martyr Paul Bogle.

Since Mr Rowe gave that interview all of four months ago, just days after being honoured, we are unable to accept Mr Wright's explanation that he and his executive delayed the rescinding of the honour because they needed time to deliberate.

We are far more inclined to suspect that the hesitant hands of our cricket leaders were eventually forced due to the erosion of their credibility in the eyes of the public, business community, media and political leadership.

This newspaper feels obliged to applaud all those who played a role in influencing the return to some semblance of sanity on the part of the JCA.

The issue involving Mr Rowe apart, it needs also to be said that while there has been no outcry against the decision to name the southern end of Sabina Park for the fast-bowling legend Mr Michael Holding and the northern end for Mr Courtney Walsh, the entire naming process was fundamentally flawed.

Decades ago, the JCA — then headed by the late Mr Allan Rae — named the southern stand for Mr George Headley, the great pre-World War Two West Indies batsman who first stamped Jamaica on the global stage in the realm of sports.

It's not by accident that successive administrations stayed away from formally naming sections of Sabina Park after that.

The truth is that Mr Headley apart, there are many great Jamaican cricketers — well ahead of Mr Rowe in terms of their achievements and contribution — who should have been carefully considered in a process of broad consultation before naming.

Mr Wright apparently recognised that — too late, unfortunately — when he revealed that a committee is to be established to do just that.

In going about setting up that committee, Mr Wright and his executive need to bear in mind that Sabina Park and Jamaica's cricket do not belong to the JCA. They belong to the Jamaican people. Just in case he doubts that, he should be reminded that at Sabina Park alone, the Jamaican Government spent well in excess of US$30 million in loan funds ahead of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup. That's a burden that's now being borne by the taxpayers of Jamaica.

Do you feel buying into Facebook now is a good investment for the long-run?
	Yes
	No

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password:

GCT to go down, white rum prices going up

Incompetent and thoughtless leadership