CHANGE NEEDED NOW AT JCA

The internal fighting at the Jamaica Cricket Association is yet another example of why many of us in this country would choose to lead are unfit to do so. Last week Robert Bryan who was employed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the JCA, quit in frustration as he was unable to fulfill his mandate not because he was not up to the task but because the JCA board is literally divided into two hostile factions.

Cricket, once a favored sport in this country, has been struggling to find an audience in the last decade or so. This, despite the national team winning almost everything at the regional level. People love winners but not these winners it seems. A large part of that has to do with the incredible run of losses being racked up by the West Indies. A large part of it too has to do with the dearth of exciting talent that has been on display over that period of time.

Cricketers have become all but anonymous to the general public. Let’s face it. There are no Lawrence Rowe’s, Michael Holdings, Basil Williams, or Jeffrey Dujons out there anymore. As a result cricket matches are played before empty stands and individual milestones go unnoticed because no one cares. There are many other reasons why cricket is on the decline including the cost to play the sport. A good bat can run you more than 10,000 Jamaican dollars, a set of pads $8000. That’s almost $20,000 right there and we haven’t even bought shirts, shoes and flannels yet.

Compare that to football where for the cost of the pads you can get a full outfit of boots, shorts, shirt and a ball to boot. It’s the same for basketball. So as you can see cricket faces challenges on many fronts. So with this in mind one would have thought that any board would recognize there is a lot of work to be done and done soon. But that is not the case. In this mad rush for power at all costs some members of the board have seen it fit to stifle anything that comes before the board as they seek to unseat the incumbent president.

Let me set the record straight here. Paul Campbell has served the JCA well as president but there are issues of transparency with his presidency that have given fuel to his detractors. That being said, those who are opposed to his presidency, people believed to have been aligned with the Courtney Walsh campaign two  years ago, have reportedly gone out their way to make life unnecessarily difficult.

Bryan refused to be drawn into naming names when I spoke to him about who the board members were who were the main cause of the conflict but checks made with people close to the situation suggest that those members from the losing side two years ago have refused to move on from the defeat and have set about trying to unseat the president, apparently at all cost.

But to what end?

All the public battles have only served to turn off potential business partners of the JCA. And can you blame them? I wouldn’t want to be a part of any organisation that seems intent of self-destruction. It was among the complaints of the the former CEO who prior to his six-month stint at the JCA, successfully staged the ICC World Twenty/20 competition held here in the Caribbean last year. He knows what is required to turn things around, only he doesn’t see that happening in the current environment.

A lot needs to change and it needs to happen now. It’s only a matter of time because the last remaining die-hard supporters of the sport turn our backs on it for good.