The science of getting it right

WEST INDIES cricket has been described as a Public Good, and so there is the need for high-quality decision-making. The composition of the WI 2022 T20I World Cup team was controversial, with many questioning the quality of the selectors’ decision-making, while others were more positive.

“The selectors have produced a fit-for-purpose squad ... . For the first time for years, the selectors had good options … .”

However, our 2022 T20I World Cup team didn’t perform well. Similar was the performance of our 2023 ODI World Cup team. So now again there is the resurrection of the perspective that the problem is the current CWI governance structure.

Decision-making by CWI on the governance structure

The 2019-2021 CWI administration created a task force whose focus was development of a new governance structure. A careful review of its formal report suggests several aspects that could benefit from reconsideration including:

‘Public Good’ and the consulted

The report identified those who were interviewed/consulted with respect to the development of the report, and also those who were invited but did not participate. Interestingly, 12 of the 14 persons interviewed/consulted were then current or former CWI board members or current employees; with the others being the heads of the ECB and NZ Cricket. WIPA, WI Retired Players Association, and the WI Umpires Association were not among those invited for consultation, although CWI states that WI cricket is a Public Good and so one would expect that such stakeholders would have had also been consulted.

Context is king

“The New Zealand model is highlighted because of the similarities between cricket there and here ... .”

It is known that identification and consideration of appropriate contexts are important for quality decision-making. The task force did not establish in what ways cricket in New Zealand (NZ) is similar to that in the WI. It is true that like most of the WI, NZ comprises multiple islands. However, there are also significant differences, including in culture, economic prosperity, sports (including level of public and private funding), governance (ie, single state versus over 10 independent states), and population characteristics (descendants of settlers versus descendants of the enslaved and indentured).

Top-down orientation and WI culture

“We have, … made recommendations for in-depth investigation of the various structures of the TCBs, for commonality in structure and for governance practices to be made mandatory with consequences if not adhered to.”

CWI is the only full member of the ICC that comprises populations from multiple independent states, where the populations are primarily comprised of the descendants of those who resisted domination. It may, therefore, be worth reconsidering whether a top-down CWI dominance model would be acceptable for these TCBs or the wider population.

Absence of strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis

“The report will now highlight the changes in Australia, England and New Zealand which are particularly pertinent to CWI.”

The task force chose to review changes in governance structures in Australia, England and NZ, and to use insights from these contexts to make its recommendations as to an appropriate CWI governance structure. The task force’s report provided no explicit evidence that it conducted thorough SWOT-like contextual analyses of those governance structures. Rather, these structures seem to be just accepted as being adequate and appropriate for those contexts.

Untested assumptions

“The New Zealand model is highlighted … because the reform there has, in seven years, led to dramatic improvements in the performance of New Zealand teams internationally.”

Quality decision-making requires that there should be rigorous exploration of the causes of improved performance rather than just attribute the improvement to a change in governance structure. For the significant improved performance of the NZ men’s teams has also been widely attributed to the culture change in the team after Brendon McCallum took over the captaincy. Similarly, the improved performance of the English men’s ODI and T20I teams has been widely attributed to the team’s culture change that occurred under Eoin Morgan’s captaincy.

Survey of public opinion

CWI’s previous approach for obtaining public opinion on a new governance structure could benefit from consideration of the following:

Questionnaire design: Several of the question items only offered binary options (yes, no) rather than allowing for a range (eg, strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree) which would allow for participant opinions to be appropriately captured.

Data collection process

If after completing the electronic questionnaire you deleted the corresponding cookie on your computer, you could make another submission, thus compromising integrity and reliability of the data collection process.

Concluding comment

It would be beneficial to do comprehensive, constructive consultations and analyses to determine our fundamental objectives and the characteristics of our problem, and to use these inputs to design multiple solution alternatives, each of which would then be subjected to SWOT-like analysis.

Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are fortnightly columns highlighting advances that impact Sport. We look forward to your continued readership.Professor Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson is professor emeritus of information systems at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. He was also a visiting professor of computing at The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica.