Tweet
EDITORIAL - Hunte, Ramnarine must go
Published: Wednesday | September 9, 2009
In an official biography on its website, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) describes its president, Julian Hunte, as "a skilled and accomplished diplomat with extensive experience in the multilateral process".
Perhaps that was some time ago, maybe when, for a period, he served as St Lucia's foreign minister and as its ambassador to the United Nations, where, for one year, he was president of the General Assembly.
For as the WICB lurches from crisis to crisis, it appears to us that Mr Hunte's vaunted diplomatic skills have left him, if he had them in the first place. Something else appears to have eluded Mr Hunte, the management skills we assumed he developed while building his private businesses.
How else, therefore, can we explain Mr Hunte's recent bungling leadership of the board, the nadir of which was last week's collapse of the mediation by Sir Shridath Ramphal of the contract dispute between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).
Sympathy and credibility
To understand the magnitude of the board's failure it has to be viewed against the fact that Dinanath Ramnarine, the disruptive, arrogant and self-absorbed chief executive officer of WIPA, emerged from the process with greater sympathy and credibility than the WICB.
In pointing a finger at the WICB, Sir Shridath complained that his expectation of success "changed dramatically when one party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other". The Caribbean Community's chairman, Guyana's Bharrat Jagdeo, directly accused the WICB of attempting to "get its own way, whatever the consequences to our cricket".
Such characterisations represent, at the most benign, a monumental squandering by the board of the moral high ground in a dispute in which Ramnarine, on behalf of the senior players, demanded more than Shylock's pound of flesh in remuneration and benefits.
Mr Hunte has suggested that the document the WICB placed on the table during the Ramphal mediation was up for negotiation and that Sir Shridath seems to have misapprehended his negotiators and, thus, misinformed President Jagdeo.
Wicb blame
If that was the case, it represented a major cock-up in communication, for which the WICB's negotiators have to bear the blame. And the buck must stop with Julian Hunte, the boss.
Then there is the case of the fired coach, John Dyson, who was terminated, the board said, in part for failing to sign his contract. But Mr Dyson has revealed that the contract sent to him was in his predecessor's name and delivered to the wrong address.
In any event, how is it that the WICB allowed Mr Dyson to be on its staff for several months without a valid contract? Was he paid? On what basis? What were his deliverables?
Our final point is the public spat between the Patterson Task Force and the WICB over the former's proposals for the restructuring of the board. We agree, as we have suggested before, that parts of the Patterson plan are unwieldy, although it contains some good ideas. The board, though, has been unable to clearly enumerate what proposals it has implemented, despite saying it agreed with 70 per cent.
Given the latest cock-up, Mr Hunte should join Mr Ramnarine in a departure from West Indies cricket. It should happen quickly.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
Published: Wednesday | September 9, 2009
In an official biography on its website, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) describes its president, Julian Hunte, as "a skilled and accomplished diplomat with extensive experience in the multilateral process".
Perhaps that was some time ago, maybe when, for a period, he served as St Lucia's foreign minister and as its ambassador to the United Nations, where, for one year, he was president of the General Assembly.
For as the WICB lurches from crisis to crisis, it appears to us that Mr Hunte's vaunted diplomatic skills have left him, if he had them in the first place. Something else appears to have eluded Mr Hunte, the management skills we assumed he developed while building his private businesses.
How else, therefore, can we explain Mr Hunte's recent bungling leadership of the board, the nadir of which was last week's collapse of the mediation by Sir Shridath Ramphal of the contract dispute between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA).
Sympathy and credibility
To understand the magnitude of the board's failure it has to be viewed against the fact that Dinanath Ramnarine, the disruptive, arrogant and self-absorbed chief executive officer of WIPA, emerged from the process with greater sympathy and credibility than the WICB.
In pointing a finger at the WICB, Sir Shridath complained that his expectation of success "changed dramatically when one party introduced an entirely new document and refused to negotiate on any other". The Caribbean Community's chairman, Guyana's Bharrat Jagdeo, directly accused the WICB of attempting to "get its own way, whatever the consequences to our cricket".
Such characterisations represent, at the most benign, a monumental squandering by the board of the moral high ground in a dispute in which Ramnarine, on behalf of the senior players, demanded more than Shylock's pound of flesh in remuneration and benefits.
Mr Hunte has suggested that the document the WICB placed on the table during the Ramphal mediation was up for negotiation and that Sir Shridath seems to have misapprehended his negotiators and, thus, misinformed President Jagdeo.
Wicb blame
If that was the case, it represented a major cock-up in communication, for which the WICB's negotiators have to bear the blame. And the buck must stop with Julian Hunte, the boss.
Then there is the case of the fired coach, John Dyson, who was terminated, the board said, in part for failing to sign his contract. But Mr Dyson has revealed that the contract sent to him was in his predecessor's name and delivered to the wrong address.
In any event, how is it that the WICB allowed Mr Dyson to be on its staff for several months without a valid contract? Was he paid? On what basis? What were his deliverables?
Our final point is the public spat between the Patterson Task Force and the WICB over the former's proposals for the restructuring of the board. We agree, as we have suggested before, that parts of the Patterson plan are unwieldy, although it contains some good ideas. The board, though, has been unable to clearly enumerate what proposals it has implemented, despite saying it agreed with 70 per cent.
Given the latest cock-up, Mr Hunte should join Mr Ramnarine in a departure from West Indies cricket. It should happen quickly.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
Comment