#BTColumn – Cricket management crisis

The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Dennis De Peiza

Based on public comments, the recent saga in West Indies Cricket which involved Christopher Henry Gayle, and that seems not to have attracted an appropriate response from the Directors, Executive Management of Cricket West Indies and that of the management team of World Cup T-20 team, has left most right-thinking people baffled and bewildered. This development raises the question as whether there is a crisis management problem in West Indies cricket.

The characteristic of crisis management is founded on the application of strategies designed to help an organisation deal with a sudden and significant negative event.

It is the understanding that a crisis can occur as a result of an unpredictable event or an unforeseeable consequence of some event that had been considered as a potential risk.

As an employee of Cricket West Indies, the behaviour of Gayle, alias the Universe Boss, was both disgraceful and despicable.

Without any apparent sanctions being imposed, the matter appears to have been swept under the carpet. If this is in fact the case, the logical conclusion left to be reached, is that the leadership and management of West Indies cricket have failed the people of the region.

Long have the cries of insularity in West Indies cricket been echoed. Often times the actions or lack thereof on matter of indiscipline and inconsistency in the selection process, tend to give credence to this contention. This leads to questions being raised regarding inconsistencies in the application of fairness and justice.

A perfect example dates back to the behaviour of Damesh Ramdin on the tour of England in 2012. After he scored a century on the fourth day of the test match at Edgbaston, Ramdin had the audacity to pull a note from his pocket with a scribbled message that was directed at the legendary batsman Sir Vivian Richards. The message read: “Yea Viv Talk Nah.” It is true that he subsequently offered an apology.

It however is not clear if any disciplinary action was ever taken by the then West Indies Cricket Board of Control. What is known, is that Denesh Ramdin was fined 20 per cent of his match fee by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the way he celebrated his century on day four of the third Test against England at Edgbaston.

Why is it that these outburst from West Indies contracted cricketers continue to be tolerated without some strong sanctions being imposed by the authorities?

Is it that the leadership and management lack what it takes to figure out the best way to respond when an incident occurs.

They ought to be aware that crisis management covers incident response, whereas risk management usually does not. It would seem that there is a need for the application of crisis management in West Indies Cricket.

Those in the leadership and management of West Indies Cricket would do well to acquaint themselves with the fact that crisis management is aimed to respond appropriately to unexpected and undesired matters, and to mitigate potential risks.

It is about time that the leaders and managers of West Indies cricket come to understand that cricket as a business, is not all about generating revenue.

If acts of indiscipline on the part of players and officials were allowed to continue, it won’t be hard to figure out that the sport stands to suffer from the potential loss of sponsorship support.

At this juncture, it makes for good management sense, if the leadership of Cricket West Indies gives urgent consideration to the implementation of a crisis management plan.

Crisis management can be divided into the three phases of pre-crisis, crisis response and post-crisis. The pre-crisis phase is concerned with prevention and preparation. The crisis response phase is when management must actually respond to a crisis.

It is important to understand that crisis management is the process by which an organisation deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders.

This basically is translated to mean that the crisis management plan outlines how your business will react if a crisis occurs.

It would appear that people across the Caribbean region have legitimate concerns with the management of West Indies cricket.

It would be a huge mistake if a premium is not placed on enforcing and maintaining standards of discipline to be observed by those players who represent the region.If this doesn’t occur, then the leadership of sport would in fact be failing the people of the region.

Cricket must be seen as more than a sport. It is a business which employs players and officials. These must at all-times be held accountable for their actions.

Understanding that mistakes are made and lessons are learnt, the takeaway from this, is that when a player wilfully misbehaves, decisive management dictates that prompt action is taken to correct the behaviour.     

Dennis De Peiza is a Labour & Employee Relations Consultantat Regional Management Services Inc. website: www.regionalmanagement services.com