How does a sport survive when administrators face no scrutiny, ignore results and remain in power year after year? ©AFP
Cricket, once the pride of our region and the heartbeat of our people, is being quietly strangled - not by a lack of talent or fan support, but by leadership structures so deeply flawed they no longer serve the game. Across several regional cricket boards, governance has collapsed into something more dangerous than incompetence: entitlement without accountability.
Where else in public life can you fail repeatedly, spend public funds with zero oversight, produce embarrassing results and still keep your job, year after year? In cricket administration, failure is not only tolerated; it is protected and even rewarded.
Board members pay themselves what they want, select players based on personal loyalty rather than merit, and treat national team results as irrelevant. Whether we win, lose, or are completely humiliated on the international stage, the outcome is the same: they stay in power.
In any other institution - parliament, business, education, civil society - this kind of dysfunction would trigger resignations or be met with external intervention. But in cricket? There is no consequence. Just silence, blame-shifting, and a press release.
And when the public dares to ask: "Where is the plan?" the answer is often a hastily stitched-together program meant to score headlines, not results. There is no proper, well-thought-out development plan. No long-term structure. No sustainable systems. Just tokenism, PR, and smoke screens. It's not progress; they're just buying time.
Fans are not fooled. They've walked away from the sport in droves, not with protest, but with silence. And while the passion fades from the stands and the grassroots, those in charge cling to their positions, immune to results and deaf to criticism.
In this broken system, you don't need to be qualified to serve. You don't need experience in governance, sports management, or even cricket. You just need to belong to the right circle. Loyalty replaces merit. Protectionism replaces performance.
"Selection is subjective," they claim. But that's just code for "we choose who we want." Promising young players are sidelined, veterans discarded, and anyone who dares question the system is punished. Alternative views are met not with reform, but with exclusion or punishment!
And when we suffer defeats - not by a few runs, but crushing losses - there's no introspection, no accountability. No one steps aside. The same faces remain, making the same excuses, drawing from the same failed playbook.
More recently, the situation has gone from bad to worse. A heart-wrenching loss to Australia - yet another in a string of heavy defeats - was followed by an all-time low, as our team was bowled out for a
