4 November 1998

West Indies: Consultant Blames Lack Of Accountability

The Barbados Nation

Management consultant Dr. Aubrey Armstrong is not surprised at the latest crisis situation in West Indies cricket, given the way in which the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) operates.

"Incidents like this will crop up because nobody is held accountable," said Armstrong, who analyses The Management of the game in the region.

"It is like a secretive authoritarian body and even some members have been marginalised."

Armstrong said that although there had been talk of transparency and accountability, there was little change in the operations of the WICB.

"There is not much transparency. For example, if you ask for the new constitution or the articles of inclusion you will get a hard time, but if you want the new coaching policy it will not be a problem."

He said this was evident where no one took responsibility for anything that happenned.

Armstrong believes the articles and the new constitution should have been discussed throughout the region.

The WICB has moved to set up an off-shore arm in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and he said that "the very quick move" to the BVI was "a further measure of their being removed from the people and it will be very difficult to sue".

In effect, they had institutionalised the ability to withstand any external influences.

"I had suggested that if the board has a new constitution, then they needed to be discussion far and wide in the region so that people could discuss the implications, and any new constitution should include accountability to the people of the region.

"The member bodies are really impotent and are not really aware of what is going on.

"A small body makes the decisions. It doesn't give much room for the representatives to say much about the way they are represented."

Source :: The Barbados Nation (http://www.nationnews.com/)