#BTColumn – Committed to cricket in Barbados

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

by Calvin G. Hope

The Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) is part of an elite “Club” of 100+ year old institutions in Barbados and the West Indies that continue to thrive. Since 1997 the Members of the BCA have continuously placed their faith in me to serve on the BCA Board as Board Member and thereafter as Vice President for the past five (5) years.
I have held that faith placed in me, as a distinct honour.

Throughout the years, I have utilised my skills, professional training and experience combined with my vast knowledge of our cricket to help the BCA Board uphold the tremendous legacy of the BCA. I am driven not only by my deep commitment to the organisation but also my passion for cricket and my love for my country.

In my capacity as Vice President the BCA Board has given me the responsibility of chairing three (3) of its key sub-committees namely – the Cricket Committee, the Marketing & Public Relations Committee, and the Cricket Legends Committee.

I have worked tirelessly together with the members of each of those committees to fulfil the mandate of the BCA. This work was done in collaboration with the President and the BCA Board and resulted in the development and implementation of a number of policy initiatives, programmes and strategic plans. These included but
are not limited to:

1. A Cricket Development Plan 2018 – 2022 (now being reformulated for the period 2022 – 2026) containing a set of initiatives to address the challenges of our cricket in these modern times. This plan is aimed at improving the standards and quality of the game and its future sustainable development in Barbados and by extension our region.

2. A Terms of Reference for the development of a Strategic Marketing Communication Plan to include a commercial website, aimed at monetizing BCA intellectual assets, bolstering existing income from sponsorships and establishing new revenue streams such as merchandising and media content streaming.

This resulted in a public tendering process and RFP approved by the BCA Board for procurement of the services of a local marketing consultancy to develop and implement the marketing programme. This plan was formulated, vetted and later resoundingly adopted by the BCA Board.

The plan outlined revenue targets and key performance indicators to allow for measurement and tracking of the success of the initiatives subsequently rolled out.

3. A research programme which involved surveys and focus groups with a wide cross section of the BCA’s membership and the wider public on the current perceptions, challenges and opinions of the state of cricket and the BCA. The findings and research insights were leveraged to inform various plans and initiatives including the cricket development plan and the strategic marketing plan.

4. The scoping, development and build out of an online strategy, website and mobile app to implement digital transformation initiatives at the BCA and to facilitate opportunities for revenue generation via advertising sales, online sales of merchandise and subscription services for access to BCA content and live streaming.

5. The research & development of a global merchandising programme for BCA brands. This involved outreach to potential international partners to explore possible joint ventures for the monetization of BCA’s intellectual property such as our Barbados Pride national team brand, along with the volumes of historical cricket resources and content
the BCA owns.

6. The Cricket Legends Committee – a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) established between the BCA and Cricket Legends of Barbados Inc. (CLOBI) containing agreed guidelines for the two organisations to meaningfully work together in the best interest of both entities in regards to sustainable development of our cricket and our nation as a whole.

In this regard work continues in three (3) key strategic areas – supporting needed causes of members of CLOBI
who are met with health challenges and unfortunate circumstances (BCA duly registered Charity aimed
for it to provide help with such challenges among other things) – recognition of our iconic cricket legends
in promotion of the legacy our cricket (recent erection of a Wes Hall  (Sir Wesley Hall) statue at Kensington Oval, and planning for:

(a) erection of a Charlie Griffith (Sir Charles Griffith) statue in the same area),

(b) CLOBI to be a part financial beneficiary of proceeds from one of BCA lottery partners and

(c) promotion of projects for enhancement of our tourism product offer (to attract cricket clubs and supporters from overseas, especially the United Kingdom by way of a cricket festival and or reviving separate club tours).

The BCA then faced unprecedented constraints and challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020. This unforeseen event posed a significant threat to the efforts of the marketing committee to implement the marketing plan as prescribed by the consultants.

There was also a cessation of cricket due to COVID-19 protocols and restrictions and this, coupled with the economic fallout from lock-downs and curbed commercial activity across Barbados, severely impacted BCA’s income
streams and cash flow.

It meant that funding for marketing and business development activities became non-existent. However, despite this major challenge, I worked relentlessly with the marketing committee and the hired consultancy firm to devise a number of enterprising methods to significantly reduce the marketing implementation costs.

This allowed the BCA to develop, deploy and officially launch a fully e-commerce enabled website and app at a fraction of the original cost. This was supported by a cost effective digital and social media campaign aimed at raising the profile of the BCA amongst potential corporate partners and the wider public to prepare the BCA to capitalise on the return of cricket in early 2022.

We also found creative ways to remain engaged with our stakeholder publics via digital and social media channels and public relations initiatives.

A social media summer campaign with the thematic “Cricket is Back” was also rolled out to draw greater attention to the revived 2022 season and maintain the momentum gained from earlier public relations and marketing activities.

Extensive research was also conducted into preparing a global merchandising programme to monetize the BCA’s intellectual property such as our Barbados Pride brand, the prominent image of our national teams, along with
the volumes of historical cricket resources and content the BCA owns.

We are at the stage where we can move to pursuing international licensing, franchising and merchandising of our brands, including direct to consumer sales of apparel and branded items via our e-commerce website.

Additionally, we laid the groundwork and a plan was subsequently formulated for recruiting sponsorship and grant partners via specially designed packages.

In this regard there was engagement with over 40 local and regional corporate entities in anticipation of the return of cricket in 2022.

The aim of the initiative was to facilitate sponsorship and commercial partnerships with the targeted entities for 2022 and beyond as the BCA and the country came out of the pandemic.

The interest in the BCA by corporate Barbados has been overwhelming and already we have received partnership commitments for 2022 to 2025 including the recent signing on of BICO Limited. Additional updates on other sponsorship partnerships will be announced in the coming weeks, demonstrating the successful efforts
of the marketing committee.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the BCA with its most challenging existential threat in the history of the association, especially with the cessation of cricket due to COVID-19 restrictions and protocols. This called for resourceful interventions by the marketing committee and the Board to keep the operation afloat.

We maximised the downtime while the Board was prohibited to stage cricket, to engage with relevant partners
to conduct the necessary business development and relationship marketing activities needed to reignite
corporate interest in the BCA.

This led to a number of commercial opportunities for upcoming seasons. This is critical to the BCA’s ability to finance development programmes for both community and youth cricket, along with supporting clubs, domestic and regional cricket.

By examining this track record, one can conclude that I, in collaboration with the current BCA Board has performed diligently and credibly, and that neither I nor the BCA Board lacks the visionary planning required to meet the challenges which the organisation faces in the current climate. This is the type of steadfast leadership that is required to move our cricket forward.

The medium-term outlook for the BCA is very promising with a number of commitments for programmes and initiatives that will bolster the domestic season and cricket development across the country at every level.

The foundation has been laid and the BCA’s prospects are very encouraging. I am therefore energised and highly motivated to continue to help guide the execution and delivery of the aforementioned plans already approved and being implemented by the Board.

Calvin G. Hope is a long-serving member and incumbent vice-president of the Barbados Cricket Association. He is also a former Barbados Youth Team Cricket captain.