Of Gayle, WICB & Leadership

Of Gayle, WICB & Leadership!

Caribbean people and indeed the rest of the sporting world have watched with gasping amazement at what now appears to be a sustained ridiculous attack on former West Indies Captain Chris Gayle by the West Indies Cricket Board. It is hard to characterize this matter any other way but total lunacy from those we would like to think are intelligent and educated people who refuse to see the folly in their theory and the far reaching damage they cascade across the region.

Following the Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, in which the West Indies failed miserably again, Chris Gayle returned to Jamaica and in at least one radio interview, was critical of the management of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) including team coach Otis Gibson. 

While most of us humans can identify with the obvious frustration that would have caused Gayle to make his thoughts and feelings be known publicly, it must be said that this was an erroneous move by Gayle and he should he be reprimanded within the laws & bylaws of the WICB for compromising the sacredness of the true meaning of TEAM (Together Each Achieve More) and the maxim which holds true – there is no ‘I’ in TEAM.

Chris Gayle

That said, it is reasonable to expect the WICB to feel offended and request an apology from Gayle albeit within the context of its own code of ethics. 


Let’s examine this for a moment, it would appear since there has been no clear declaration by the WICB, that Gayle is accused of compromising a section of this code that insists players and officials at all times must conduct themselves in an honest and sportsman-like manner, and precludes public or media comments which is potentially harmful to the game.

In instances where a breach of the code occurs, the code of conduct is to be enforced in accordance with the procedures laid down in the rules, which include bringing the alleged offender before a disciplinary committee on the presumption of course that natural justice will be served.

In a self written article last year by former WICB President Pat Rousseau, who felt the board in the circumstance needed to justify why it shouldn’t be accused of operating in bad faith by denying Gayle natural justice, this within the context of 

Ernest Hilaire - CEO, WICB

CEO Dr. Ernest Hilaire acting as prosecutor and judge, in that; as the board’s highest ranking executive, he brought the charges against Gayle and also presented himself as the negotiator of the expected terms of the apology being demanded.

This makes us wonder why the CEO felt he had to personally infuse himself in a disciplinary hearing of this matter and pervert the course of fairness that the disciplinary committee made up of: Justice Adrian Saunders, Dr. Lloyd Barnett and Andy Roberts to independently hear this matter and make their recommendations accordingly. 


It is clear the authenticity of what Gayle has been accused of has not been independently tested and Caribbean public and indeed the rest of the sporting world is persuaded to think the board is in breach of its own rules. 


Why should Gayle or any other player for that matter acquiesce to inequitableness and blatant hypocrisy?

Julian Hunte - President, WICB

Most of us agonize deeply over the consistent decline of West Indies cricket over the past 20 years and it is noteworthy that decadence, ignorance of developing trends in the game and insularity right across the region has played its fair share in the demise of our cricketing prowess.

We who genuinely love and support the game of cricket are at pains to understand these issues and would like to see answers for the following questions:

1.    Why the cricket associations around the region and in particular the Jamaica Cricket Board to whom Chris Gayle is a player representative, have failed to articulate a mutually crafted and agreed position on a resolution for this impasse between Gayle and the WICB?

2.      Why have influential former players such as: Clive Lloyd, Sir. Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Courtney Walsh, Jeffery Dujon, Ian Bishop, Michael Holding, Richie Richardson et al; not offered their voices and indeed themselves to find a resolution in this and other critical matters affecting the game as a whole?

3.      Are the ills of West Indies Cricket and the WICB so oblivious to Caricom leaders that they continue to ignore the irreparable damage our decline in the sport has caused our collective economies?

4.     Is it not time for Caricom leaders to step in and cease control of this wreckage on behalf of the people in order to seek out private sector collaboration to invest in the process of secondment of talent & begin to design and implement a professional structure to rebuild the foundation for the sport to grow again?

5.      Is there no blue print from India, England, Australia, New Zealand to guide our way out of this maze? Or, are we too embarrassed to ask for help?

6.     Bearing in mind Chris Gayle is not the first player to be discarded in his prime, how long will Caribbean people remain divided along the lines of country first when it comes to West Indies Cricket? Could this be why some former players have remained silent on the issue?

These questions are asked not to be facetious or point fingers but we must probe hard and deep into the state of the game and collectively find solutions to the heart of the problem that face the sport in the region and that my friends is leadership.

We need leaders who treat the game with genuine compassion, courtesy and respect. We need leaders who help the stakeholders become more successful. We need leaders who will inspire the players irrespective of where they come from with a vision for a better game and show them how to get there. Unfortunately we can’t honestly say with a straight face that WICB and the local regional cricket boards have in the past 15-20yrs provided leadership for the sport and all its stakeholders to climb out of this free fall from grace.

Colin Powell once said: “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care, either case is a failure of leadership.”

 I say therefore, fix the leadership in West Indies Cricket and therein lay the solution to issues like Chris Gayle’s.

Together we rise, divided we continue fall!