By Morissa Lindsay
There is a lack of strategic planning in various areas of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA), and candidate for the position of vice-president Kamal Springer strongly believes once given the opportunity he can help to strengthen the organization. The 31-year-old said he is not happy with the current leadership of the incumbent and hopes to upstage current vice-president Calvin Hope when elections are held on Thursday, August 11, at Kensington Oval.
Springer who made history as the youngest BCA Director in 2011 and has proven himself over time having served Barbados cricket over the last 11 years, has chaired three committees and served on the BCA Board for six years. He explained there were four main reasons he decided to run. First, the fear for the future of the organisation and the development of cricket in Barbados. Also, a lack of strategic planning. Adding to that, he said, was the disagreement with the fundamental and philosophical approach of the incumbent. Finally, he said he wanted to work towards security of the generational future of the organisation and cricket overall.
“The harsh reality is that if you consider the BCA across various categories, there has been a decline or slowing in growth, even prior to the pandemic. Fewer schools have been participating in our competitions, fewer people are joining clubs, fewer people are interested in joining the BCA, organisational expenses are increasing but revenues are not increasing correspondingly.
“We need to increase our attention on the corporate side of the organisation and develop a corporate strategy to operate in sync with a cricket development plan. It is very difficult to execute a cricket development plan without a corresponding corporate strategy in modern professional sport that speaks to finance, human resources, technology, etcetera,” Springer explained with regards to the development of the sport locally.
With reference to the strategic plans, Springer said: “A key role of any Board is to ensure the creation and execution of strategies and policies for the organisation and to monitor the progress of those strategies and policies. A BCA member may wonder what the guiding star is for the BCA and key stakeholders may be unsure as to the strategic goals of the organization. This should never be the case; stakeholders must be able to monitor the Board’s progress on its plans. This would require a well communicated set of plans to be in place.
“There is no current organisational strategic plan that I am aware of. Certainly, there is none that I have seen referenced in any recent Board proposals, which would make one wonder what is guiding each proposal and decision. We have a cricket development plan and a marketing plan that cannot exist in a vacuum.
“The establishment of these plans without synchronization with the corporate side of the organisation is not an accomplishment but will only lead to inefficiencies and operational difficulties. There would need to be a financial and human resources plan at minimum to be in sync with the cricket development and marketing plans for them to work or they will constantly face operational issues and offer excuses for their lack of execution.”
He added: “The BCA needs to establish an organisational strategic plan, spanning the cricket and corporate sides of the organisation. This process will include key stakeholders and the results must be well communicated to ensure the Board’s performance is highly measurable.”
According to Springer who has a solid background in business development with a Bachelor’s in Management Studies, Finance and International Business from the University of the West Indies, as well as a Master’s of Business Administration in Business Development Strategy, Artificial Intelligence and Consultancy and a Diploma in Global Leadership from Coventry University, he is not a supporter of how the current incumbent does things.
“I have served with various vice presidents of the BCA and have observed that the VP is key to bringing Board members together and managing the agenda of the committees of the Board to keep them on track with the Board’s strategic direction. This is not being done in my view,” Springer expressed.
He said he hoped members would see that this is the right time to change the vice president based on the Board’s actions. “The Board has already made the decision to change our Cricket West Indies Board Director from the incumbent vice president to the treasurer. This should give you a strong indication about the overall Board’s view on the incumbent’s performance as it is not normal to make such a change at that time.”
While it may be a challenge in getting through to the old guard of the BCA given that both the president and vice-president have served for a quarter of a century, Springer said he does not plan to let that deter him. He also called on the membership to see the importance of giving young people the opportunity to serve in order to secure the BCA’s future.
“It is imperative that Board members bring specific skills and/or networks to benefit the organisation. We have enough Board members with relationships within the current leadership of the public and private sectors and other Board members who have similar relationships with the next in line. I hope to focus on building relationships with the next two or three generations to secure the association’s future relationships with upcoming generations.
“I have been blown away by the incredible array and diversity in professions and backgrounds of BCA members. That inspires me to get the upcoming generations involved with the BCA to network and learn from our membership. If these future corporate, public sector and societal leaders are able to see a healthy mixture of experience on the Board, this could encourage them to get involved. We need to ensure there are social activities where current members and upcoming generations can interact to build the BCA of the future,” Springer said. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb