The administration first of all needs a group of tough heads to govern it. They should be united and have promotion of cricket as their primary concern. An ideal mix would be - Say a board of 5-6 persons - A CEO, 2-3 ex-cricketers, a financial consultant, an enterprising business man (Modi Types) and other required support staff.
It is important that the ex-cricketers take active part in the administration of the sports body. The ultimate purpose of a cricket administration should to be facilitate cricket being played int he country. However Modi & co. have re-defined that. The reasons for employing ex-cricketers -
- They form the bridge between the admin and the players(both together referred to as 2 parties form hereon). They will help facilitate flow of communication between the two parties, as they are in light of both the player issues and the admin issues.
- Perfect mediators between the 2 parties in-case of any confrontation.
- Will not let the board over burden the players with excess matches and tours.
- Will have promotion of cricket as primary concern, above profit motives.
The admin also needs a CEO, who will be the face of the Board. He should -
- stay in touch with the regional boards
- interact with the media, Govt.( wherever applicable- e.g. Pakistan), the ICC
- Get the best deals and agreements in aid of the the country's cricket.
- one of the ex-cricketers could take a CEO's job, provided he can take the pressure and the challenges that also come along with it.
Financial Consultant -
- The ex-cricketers cannot manage the finances; the CEO would be too busy to manage it. Hence a bunch of wise-guys should manage it
- 2) An internal finance team might just dabble the finances a bit more than required( leaks, controversies etc.) The financial consultant is simply told to count the numbers and provide solution while fulfilling the Boards goals and programs.
A business man -
- Lalit Modi is one person whom I ahte and like at the same time. i hate him for over-commercialising cricket, but like what's he done for Indian Cricket. We've got a brand new international extravaganza, whose brand value is almost close to the World Cup. The IPL was shifted to South Africa at a very short notice with flawless execution. The IPL has helped generate a new breed of world class players - who may have found it difficult otherwise to make it to the national team.
The Team Staff -
A head coach, a coach for bowling/batting/fielding each and the other support staff.
The head coach should focus more on building a strong team. He should be more of an observer, leader and motivator. He should have a clear idea in mind what he expects from his team and his plan of action. He should have an assistant who sits for all the domestic games and observe and recruit future potentials.
Selectors -
Ex-cricketers and the Coach should be on the selection board. Parity to all the members, but the coach should have a greater say in the selection. No regional quotas, no regional selectors.
An independent auditor- Weed out all possible corruption and controversies.
If all these back end factors are in place, then it creates a better environment to get the best out of your players.
What say?
