In electing Mr Ken Gordon as their new president, the constituents of the West Indies Cricket Board are seeming to signal an intent for a return to professional management and a no-nonsense approach to the business of cricket in the Caribbean.

There was that sense about the WICB at its re-organisation in the early 1990s, which, unfortunately, was severely undermined by the Rosseau/Joseph/Skeritt fiasco.

Since that rift in the WICB over the demarcation of the lines of authority and the process for directors to hold managers responsible, discipline in the organisation and management of West Indies cricket has been in a free fall. There is little doubt, we believe, that the confusion in the boardroom has contributed to, though it is hardly solely responsible for, the deterioration of the performance of the West Indies team on the field of play.

This newspaper has confidence in the capacity of Mr Gordon to begin, and indeed, take substantially along the way, the process of rebuilding.

We should declare an interest. Mr Gordon is a member of the board of directors of this newspaper, as he has been since its founding. Indeed, he has had a successful career in the management of media organisations in the Caribbean, including Trinidad and Tobago's Caribbean Communications Network, which he helped to found. We, therefore, speak with the authority of first-hand knowledge about the skills and competence of Mr Gordon.

What he will immediately bring to the table, for a man of 75, is boundless energy and an inability to be contained within frontiers. So he will not be phased by new ideas and big visions. Rather, he will thrive on these.

But neither will he be reckless. He is sternly disciplined and thrives on detail. He is a tough, though urbane, negotiator. Moreover, Mr Gordon holds his managers accountable.

All these qualities, we expect, will be severely tested. For Mr Ken Gordon is coming into the leadership of the WICB at a particularly difficult time.

For instance, not only has the regional team performed dismally in recent years, but a deep and wide chasm has developed between the players and the Board, not least over the controversial sponsorship deal between the WICB and the mobile telephone company, Digicel. The signals are that the Lucky Committee which investigated the contract has called for a renegotiation of the deal. It has also proposed a restructuring of the WICB to ensure greater transparency.

For the record, this newspaper urges circumspection in how we approach the appointment of state and quasi-state institutions into the management of cricket, lest politicians and governments, as they are wont to do, see this as another opportunity for power to be seized. However, given the import of cricket to the Caribbean, we believe that there has to be a model that allows for wider community participation.
Mr Gordon will have, almost paradoxically, to tread gently through the tradition-bound and arcane world of cricket even as he moves firmly to implement much-needed change.

As part of this process, we believe that Mr Gordon will have to accept the resignation, which we suspect has already been offered, of Mr Roger Brathwaite, the CEO of the WICB.
Also as a matter of good faith, we would suggest that the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), the players' trade union, urge their president, the immature Dinanath Ramnarine, to step aside. This would help in the healing of the rot of recent years.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

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