Ditch the anachronism

Ramnaresh Sarwan: a new captain ... but the same old problems facing him © Getty Images

The appointment of Ramnaresh Sarwan as captain of West Indies should herald a new dawn for the side, but there is every sign that he has inherited the many problems that have dogged a succession of captains over the last decade.

A little over a week before West Indies are due to set out for England, they have only just got round to picking the squad and appointing a manager. As things stand, they don't even have a tour, as the row between the board (WICB) and the players' association (WIPA) is still awaiting arbitration. With the Lord's Test starting two weeks today, the players are still sitting at home and waiting.

West Indies cricket, which should now be basking in the glow of having hosted the World Cup, is instead in a compete mess. The World Cup may have given the board enough cash to bail them out of a financial shambles all of its own making - and that's not certain as projected income continues to fall - and the region some new stadia that locals may be indirectly paying for for some time to come, but, that aside, few doubt that the game in the Caribbean is at an all-time low.

It was noticeable that Chris Dehring, the man at the helm of the organising committee, was roundly booed at last Saturday's closing ceremony. Between them, the Local Organising Committee and the ICC managed to do more to turn locals off cricket than any on-field calamities have ever managed.

Ken Gordon, the WICB's president, was also on the receiving end of a less-than-warm welcome. For all the spin, and his all-too-convenient and stage-managed offer to stand down, which was, surprise, surpise, turned down, in his two-year tenure he has done nothing to mend fences. In fact, he has broken down far more than he has tried to fix.

Gordon's lack of consultation seems to be a matter of concern even within the board. But the rather bloated way the executive is set-up makes it relatively easy for him to run roughshod over them.

Rather than nurture and protect [the players], the board seeks to crush them

What is almost incredible is that Gordon's board seems to regard the players - who are its main source of income - with contempt and treats them in much the same way that a Victorian factory owner might have his employees. Rather than nurture and protect them, the board seeks to crush them.

The preparations for almost all recent tours have been dogged by contractual disputes. Whatever the rights and wrongs of those, the WICB are entirely at fault for the latest eve-of-tour row as Gordon deliberately avoided addressing the issue and advising WIPA that there was any problem until the eleventh hour. It was a clear and deliberate policy of confrontation, and one based on the board's belief that poor performances had weakened the players' position and credibility.

Pressure has been growing for Gordon to stand down - that may explain his attempt to mollify the public with his very public private email offering to quit - but while that would be a start, the whole structure of the board has to be reviewed.

As it stands, it is still in name run by a cumbersome committee dogged by self-interest and regional rivalries. It hasn't worked for decades, only the on-field success of the team through to the mid 1990s disguised the crumbling system.

If the income for the World Cup does clear the WICB's debt, then West Indies cricket has one all-too-brief opportunity to set in place systems that work and that will put the game on a sound footing. Instead, the danger is that the current regime will just see it as a get-out-of-jail-free card and carry on regardless. There are few signs that the executive wants to change. If so, then the main legacy of the tournament will be to paper of the gaping cracks within West Indies cricket for a few more years.

For all the bullish talk that came out of the weekend's board meeting, there is no evidence that Gordon and his close associates have the ability to turn things round. They are distrusted by the players and the public, as Saturday showed. They have had their chance and blown it. They have to go. Unless things change, the confrontations will continue and the game will decline, possibly irreversibly.