LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
Ken Gordon, West Indies Cricket Board president, during yesterday's press conference. - Rudolph Brown
A little over a year since his appointment, West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Ken Gordon reflected on the first half of his presidency and announced some new plans yesterday during a press briefing at the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup office in New Kingston.
Gordon, who was appointed on August 7, 2005, replacing Teddy Griffith, said his first objective when he took office was restoring trust in the board.
"The most important thing in my view was the issue of credibility, because the West Indies Cricket Board has lost a lot of credibility over the years," said Gordon.
"The second objective was to re-establish contact with the players because that had broken down completely."
One issue that has put the WICB's credibility in doubt is the delay in finalising retainer contracts for the players.
After failing to meet the last deadline, Gordon said as of September 1, seven players will form the first unit of West Indies players on retainer contracts.
New agreement
"There is now a new agreement (with the West Indies Players' Association) on the retainer contracts and these are due to be signed by August 31," stated Gordon. "All outstanding contracts between the players and the WICB will also be signed" with the "other contracts," including a memo-randum of understanding, the WICB presidnt stressed.
Gordon also noted that the WICB's administration has gone through some changes over the past year. He said the staff had grown, the secretariat had been restructured and two appoint-ments are due within several weeks, with a CEO to be named on August 19, replacing Roger Brathwaite, and a corporate secretary to be named on September 1.
"We have also restructured our marketing department which will now have a sales function along with a marketing function so we will now be selling ourselves." Gordon pointed out.
This change was a direct response to the US$6.5 million operational deficit during 2004-05 as Gordon said the marketing department was expending more than it earned.
"When we realised our finances were in such bad shape we appointed a committee to identify how we were going to tackle that," said the president. "We have addressed that thoroughly and we are now on stream to break even this year." he added. The WICB's financial year runs from October 1 to September 30.
Big deficit
The WICB has an accumulated deficit of US$15 million but by not incurring any debts this year, according to Gordon, "this is the first step in starting to earn real profits".
The president also said the Cricket World Cup, which will be held across the Caribbean between March and April next year, can propel the board to start operating with a balanced book.
Gordon also announced yesterday that additional revenue is expected from a new agreement with the India Cricket Board and the U.S.A. Cricket Association (USACA).
"USACA is putting up a cricket stadium in Florida and they have asked us to have an exclusive relationship with them to keep that place occupied with games." he pointed out. "This offers us an opportunity to have North America as part of our territory and we will be promoting cricket very aggressively there."
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