“What a difference it would have made to the side if Hall had Roy Gilchrist at the other end to help him!” Had Gilchrist been on the side I think it would have been a runaway victory for West Indies,” L. D. `Strebor’ Roberts wrote in Cricket’s Brightest Summer. The muse returned to me as nomination day for the post of Cricket West Indies (CWI) president drew to a close, and I was taking down my campaign banners and removing `Ray Ford for president’ signs, staked on neighborhood lawns. But first things first.
Spartan Strong
So let me spare a thought for the three Michigan State University (MSU) students – Arielle Diamond Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner – who lost their lives to a senseless shooting on the MSU campus on February 13th last. I have been a member of the Spartan family since January 1974. And for being so, I’ve grown a stiffer backbone. Because as Tim Alberta pointed out in his Requiem for The Spartans, “this university is the home of overachievers and underdogs, an ideal place for someone (like me) with a point to prove.” And when in America, I’d rather be in no other place.
An Intersection of Thoughts
My run to lead West Indies cricket began when during the West Indies – India Test match at Sabina Park in August 2019, I pushed back my ice-cream chair and made the grand announcement, so unbearable was the sloven I was seeing below. Not long after, I went upstairs to the TV/radio quarters got the ear of a former West Indies player and whispered, “Let’s team together and overthrow the thing!” Twenty-nine (29) years before when I was just getting out of business school, Jordan D. Lewis’s Partnerships for Profit had hit bookstores. And my thinking was to form a strategic alliance with a CWI insider or a former West Indies cricketer with currency, to shake the thing up. But alas, it was as if I was talking Greek. “I’ll soon be back,” I remember the former West Indies cricketer sheepishly saying to me. But he never did return.
Right there and then, I knew that I was embarking on a journey virtually all by myself. In addition, there were the words of Peter Roebuck coming back to haunt: “Self-indulgence and self-interest are to blame for West Indies’ present condition,” Roebuck had written in his essay Decline and Fall essay some twelve (12) years before. And today, this twin malady remains.
Inconsistencies and Contradictions
Throughout my run, of all the thoughts that were coursing through my mind the one of inconsistencies and contradictions prevailed. Arriving at the cricket, I’ve always been gladhanded by former players and media-men alike. And even on occasion, I had been asked to be an on-air guest. And two such occasions, stand-out.
On the morning of January 10th, 2008 – the first day of a West Indies – South Africa Test at the Sahara Stadium in Durban, South Africa, and after a long overnight flight the day before, as soon as I arrived in the press quarters, a Caribbean cricket commentator saw me and pounced. “Ray, join me on-air at lunch time,” I remember him saying. The same thing happened to me at Kensington Oval on October 16th last, when I arrived as a guest to watch the BCA Super Cup 50 Over Final. How come these people were so keen to talk to me on-air, and yet during my campaign, none would say a word publicly, on my behalf? In fact, on the preceding Tuesday in Barbados, I had spent all day preparing for what I thought was an agreed-upon radio interview. But during the program, my phone never rang. Would the host have stood-up Johnny Grave or Dominic Warne? That snub drove me to write the op-ed West Indies Cricket: The Case for The Outsider which appeared in both the Barbados Today and in the Jamaica Observer.
Damnatio memoriae
If the business of air-brushing is to add wings to individuals, I came to the realization that by ignoring my candidacy, there were forces afoot working to do to me, the exact opposite. And their silence served somewhat as an invisible torch intended to melt the wax hinging my wings. Case-in-point.
I have a record of sending my interest in running for the post to a specific nominator – a CWI director. But yet a few weeks ago, when the said nominator was asked on-air, if he had received any other requests for consideration besides the one from Dr. Kishore Shallow, he said no. And to me, that was a mischaracterization of the truth. Also, on a Caribbean cricket radio program of February 21st last, when a Guyana-based journalist mentioned my name, the host bolted from the mention, swifter than Usain Bolt could have.
That this orchestrated scrubbing was taking-place in Black History Month, was instructive. It got me thinking of a time in history when several prosperous Black cities in the United States were burnt to the ground. Their leveling and erasure were geared towards the making of a false narrative, that the ambitions of a certain set of people should neither be seen nor heard of. To gain solace, I sought refuge back into Garveyism. Because I remembered that in nearly all of Garvey’s causes, he had to contend with the efforts of some of his own people, to rub out his message.
In so seeking, I found the writings of the Jamaican writer, scholar and poet Dr. Opal Palmer Adisa, reinvigorating. In her Daily Musings page of August 21, 2021, Palmer Adisa wrote in Marcus Garvey: Still Relevant Today: “Garvey had a vision, insight and tenacity to pursue his dreams.” And like Garvey, I was not about to be discouraged by the sleights of some cricket operatives in the Caribbean, who could not see beyond their troughs.
Good Leadership Matters
Throughout my journey though, it struck me how apathetic the Caribbean cricket fraternity was towards advocating for good cricket leadership. Many would jabber, prattle, and write reams. But when I sounded a proverbial trumpet, many had, or found, cows to tie out.
In the weeks leading up to the nominations there was hardly any public discourse. But many would relay to me off the record, they too thought that West Indies cricket was being badly led. And as the sitting CWI vice-president Dr. Kishore Shallow said on-radio on February 21st last, it should no longer be that the election of a CWI president take place in a proverbial smoke-filled backroom with only the twelve (12) CWI directors determining whose turn it is in the barrel, or to whom the position should be bequeathed. Instead suggested Dr. Shallow, the decision should result from a battle of ideas. And recently Curtis Myrie – a Jamaica media-man posting on a cricket chat, demanded accountability. “I believe that territorial representatives nominating these candidates should also be accountable and brought into the debate. They need to tell us just why and how they were swayed – (and) what tangibly appealed to them,” he wrote.
In modern times and using good governance, a position such as this is most often determined after a rigorous vetting process. And there are numerous readings in business literature which suggest that in forward-thinking and well-run organizations, good leadership does matter.
One of the most celebrated cases is that of Lee Iacocca at Chrysler Motors. And one of the most recent, is that of the England tag-team of men’s head cricket coach Brendon McCullum and their senior men’s Test team captain Ben Stokes. Regarding the latter, in Transforming Leadership: the power of a fresh approach which appeared in the blog `Grace + Truth’, Jon Kuhrt chronicled the steep rise of England Test cricket under McCullum and Stokes. And this began after the team’s nadir in Grenada at the hands of the West Indies a year ago.
But who was Ray Ford?
Contrary to what some might think, Ray Ford was not in search of stardom. He is an overachiever and an underdog who was keen to couple his background in cricket with his theoretical academics, to right the listing West Indies cricket ship. By helping to win a Spaulding Cup, and by working hard to get two master’s degrees from two different Big-Ten universities, he was adamant that he was built of the right stuff. Besides, he kept remembering that at least one man – the Kingston College, Lucas Cricket Club, Jamaica and West Indies opening batsman Mr. Easton `Bull’ McMorris, believed in his candidacy.
And what does he now make of his run?
If my high school English teacher Dr. Victor Chang and the doyen Caribbean cricket commentator and writer Mr. Tony Cozier were alive, I can bet that they would be asking, “So Ray Ford, what do you make of all this?” I am no big cricket writer, but I remember Cozier approaching me at the Sydney Cricket Ground in December 1996, at the end of the second West Indies – Australia Test match, and instructing: “Ray Ford, write me something on what you’re seeing out there!” My views – ‘Costly Critical Lapses‘ – ended up in the next edition of his Red Stripe Caribbean Cricket Quarterly (RSCCQ). And that was not the first time Cozier was doing that.
On England’s 1994 tour of the Caribbean, at the end of the third Test in Trinidad, the renowned cricket journalist and broadcaster asked me to summarize that series. He then included my ‘Just How Will This Series Be Rated?’ comments in the July/September 1994 issue of the same RSCCQ.
But why?
I can only guess that Cozier thought that I was one who saw the ball early, and when I did, I wasn’t afraid to play the shot. But in this case, and like the great George Headley, I’m playing the shot late. Because in the interest of West Indies cricket, this ball must not be left-alone.
If my interactions with some cricket operatives in the Caribbean are anything to go by, it’s my take that the administration of West Indies cricket, is behind-time. Thirty or so years ago, business talk was about shareholder value and globalism. Today, it is about stakeholder capitalism and regionalism. But apparently, the memo on the rise of the stakeholder in business relations, has not yet reached the CWI fortress in Antigua. Because a good many of those who administer West Indies cricket still give short shrift to this aspect of governance. Remember, stakeholders are persons with an interest or concern in something, especially a business. And they are individuals directly involved with, or indirectly affected by, a project, product, service or enterprise. Treat them shabbily, at your peril. Take my experience with one particular CWI director.
Last May, I had in-place – or so I had thought – an arrangement to meet with a territorial cricket board president. But on arrival, the president and CWI director informed me that he’d be (quote): `tied-up all week’. “So, what about meeting with your second-in-command?” I enquired. Soon, the WhatsApp message arrived: “Mr. `So-n-So’ does not see the need to meet with you at this time.” Fair enough. But what did the offending director expect? That I would not make public this experience with him? And what if unbeknown to him and his deputy, I had leveraged from my namesake Mr. Bill Ford, a check for say U$100,000 to further cricket in their territory? How would that have gone-down? And what did this experience say of Caribbean-diaspora relations? Was the Florida-based Jamaican attorney Dahlia Walker-Huntington right in her Jamaica Gleaner commentary of July 13, 2018 Petrojam and the diaspora – that many in the diaspora felt that they were only seen as a source of revenue for Jamaica, whether it be remittances, investments or donations to non-profits, without any respect?
The good people I met
But there are still good people out there. And I encountered them among the myriads I reached out to including the cricketing GOAT, current Sky TV broadcasters, CWI directors – past and present, an ESPN cricket-beat writer, a former CEO of West Indies cricket, former international cricketers, a former prime minister of a Caribbean nation, a High Commissioner to Jamaica, international cricket captains, a Jamaican businessman, newspaper cricket correspondents, past presidents of West Indies cricket, a soil science professor, sports talk-show hosts, sports writers and the current vice-president of CWI. And I must single out some for commendation. The GOAT – Sir Garfield Sobers, Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner to Jamaica – His Excellency, Mr. Deryck Murray, CWI directors Dr. Kishore Shallow and Mr. Dwain Gill, West Indies Players Association (WIPA) Secretary Mr. Wayne Lewis, and two of my Fortis contemporaries – Mr. Paul Matalon and Mr. Charlie Grant.
But what a distinct privilege and pleasure it was, to have spent an afternoon with Sir Gary! I had been in touch with him ever since I was trying to honor his good friend and West Indies team-mate ‘Collie’ Smith on the grounds of Kingston College, some twelve years ago. And it was only last October that I took him up on his invitation to stop by, when I was in Barbados. And so there we were – roaming, if not quite solving the world’s problems.
But who should not lead West Indies cricket?
The ‘if not me then who?’ was of course, only ‘campaign-speak’. But I’d be happy to support a candidate who represents my interests and values as they pertain to West Indies cricket. And sadly, Wilford Heaven is one who does not. Heaven is the offending CWI director I spoke about earlier. And as I noted, in this day and age, not only do stakeholder relations matter, but they can impact fundraising. Well-led organizations have leaders who are curious as to the ideas of others, breathe in fresh information, and act more like sponges and less like slabs of granite. Not to mention that disastrous SportsMax TV interview of October 25th last https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SuEAlhVcD8o. It left the program’s hosts Ms. Mariah Ramharack and Mr. George Davis in n bewilderment.
As `Strebor’ Roberts wrote in the preface of his book, the duty of a reporter is to (quote); “present happenings in a vivid manner, and to report faithfully all that was worth reporting.” And in writing this treatise, I’d like to think that I am doing just that. West Indies cricket is now firmly planted in the bottom-half of international cricket. And it is in need of a secure, curious, open-minded, forward-thinking and visionary individual to lead it. And in my opinion, Wilford Heaven is not that individual. He is trading in the devalued currency of folksiness. But in closing, allow me to mangle `Strebor’ Roberts’ muse.
What a difference it might have made, if any cricket operative whom I thought knew me, had publicly lifted a voice, raised a fist, took a knee or unsheathed a pen, in support of me! I might still not have gotten a nomination. But I might have gotten into the conversation.
Ray Ford is a West Indies cricket stakeholder, who ran for CWI president.
