MICHAEL, as always, was quite menacing. Holding hardly anything back with remarks that, like his deliveries, were unsettling with sheer pace, Michael Holding, by Zoom on the opening day of the Caricom Regional Cricket Conference in Trinidad, April 25, 2024, proved quite penetrating.

If Jamaican parlance is permitted: ‘Him talk up di tings’…. and moved to get to the heart of the matter. Given that he was moved to tears, I scribbled for more than an hour in our telephone chat — carrying more weight than an interview — making notes on comments which, like his deliveries, are best described by the acclaimed English batsman Geoffrey Boycott as unplayable.

Let’s get this straight (my words): “This is not my first rodeo” (his) as he has been a presenter at past forums of this kind. “We have clearly been here before, and the only thing that can make a difference is if recommendations are accepted and implemented by the board. Why (troublingly) has the governance structure remained for so long? As President Shallow has said, it’s ignorance… and also the fear of losing power.”

It was classic Michael Holding: “No king takes the crown off his own head” — direct reference to the reluctance and resistance by board members to effect changes as advised.

“The question, therefore, that importantly has to be addressed,” he says, “since insanity is about doing the same thing and expecting different results, is simply what pressure will be brought to bear by the fraternity that includes governments throughout the region?”

We were never going to get around the embattled board, bundling administratively and increasingly over the years. Bemusingly, he again referred to the president of Cricket West Indies, Dr Kishore Shallow who had mentioned that he, Holding, in one of his books had noted that the board is incompetent.

It has been, in several instances, and there is the embarrassing case of us not even spelling the name correctly of a major sponsor of a particular campaign promoting well-being. Yes, it happened. Clearly disappointing, but in moving along to get past all this we could be advised to ‘walk good’ — term bearing some relation to the very campaign.

In ascribing blame for how West Indies cricket has floundered, fingers have been pointed at our players. “Well, it’s not the players’ fault,” he contended. “I am not going to blame them. Cricketers have a short lifespan and must maximise their earnings, like everybody else. They can’t be retained without money so I am not going to support the argument about how we’re losing talent. We can’t lose talent — the talent is simply not available because players are everywhere making a living.

“If CWI had money,” he insisted, “the players would be selective — as is the case with England for instance where players, because of substantial basic salaries, participate only in the Indian Premier League (IPL).” Importantly, he wants us also to remember that if the Australian Kerry Packer series had gone beyond two years many of our World Test Championship legends would likely have been elsewhere engaged.

The fortunes of Cricket West Indies will therefore not change, he declares, until the sharing of purses is revisited. The International Cricket Council (ICC) gives 88.81 per cent of their earnings to the 12 full members, with the other 11.19 per cent going to the 94 associate members. Out of that 88.81 per cent the “big three” as they are referred to — India, England and Australia — get more than 50 per cent, with India alone getting 38.5 per cent. So India, the richest board in the world, gets the biggest slice of the pie, and by a huge margin. No other country even gets a double figure sum of the percentage.

It doesn’t sit very well with him — not at all — and it clearly prompts the question, what’s really left to be shared? “We need a consortium of professionals,” he says in response, “that includes prime ministers, business people, players, leading experts with special strengths — and not just representatives of the board — to negotiate with the ICC.”

There are two things he points to in particular. On the subject of the right negotiators he agonised over the tour to England during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reportedly, there was a loan offered to the West Indies on the fees arranged. Losses to England would have clearly been incurred had we not gone on tour. Holding no punches he says, rather sharply, “We should have had better benefits.”

Then there is the case of his tenure on the ICC Cricket Committee. “When you had tours then, the two boards would negotiate — but this was scrapped for set fees per game. Those fees had to be paid everywhere so that hurt us here in the Caribbean because our economies couldn’t manage that, and we don’t have those types of sponsoring companies here in the region.”

I had to ask (yes, as he likes to say, “Curtis will be Curtis”) what moved him to tears. “Things are happening and people don’t want to do anything about it. Our cricket is being destroyed, and that is distressing. Until action is taken, don’t involve me.”

You’re beaten again by sheer pace… best described by Geoffrey Boycott as unplayable.