APART from the West Indies Cricket Boardxs (WICB) plans for cricket development, the board also has plans to develop and improve the relationship with the regional media. And according to the president of the WICB, Julian Hunte, at the recently concluded media workshop at the Buddyxs International Hotel on Monday, it was stated that one may avoid the media at his own peril.

He stated, xI have learnt through many years in politics, business and international diplomacy that you can only avoid the media to your own peril.x

This argument was made with reference to the sometimes over-reaching comments made by media practitioners and the sometimes non-cooperation of board officials.

However, Hunte was swift to concur that if officials are uncooperative with the media more often than not the reporter will publish the negative.

This discussion at the workshop led Hunte to reiterate that there must be mutual respect and not animosity as a foundation principle.

He expressed that xthe media has a role to play to provide information to the public and should be assisted to do so. Likewise, the media should understand that there are times when, due to confidentiality, information cannot always be released immediately.x

On the other hand, while the West Indies endured consistent failure Hunte admitted that the board experienced its share of difficulties also.

It was mentioned that the West Indies cricket had been through another difficult period during the last year.

Perhaps our greatest difficulty was with our sponsor – Digicel – where action was taken to settle a matter through arbitration.x

He further stated xthere were also issues with managementxs blundering and inefficiencies acted xout through arrangements for players travel and our tour details.

But it is not all doom and gloom, we have been able to put in place a Draft Strategic Plan for the development of cricket over the next five years which incorporates most of the recommendations of the Governance Committee Report and will soon be in a position to report favourably on the establishment of an Academy.x

At the media workshop, some media operatives were asked to give their thoughts on the current state of WI cricket and what were their opinions on the steps being taken to develop cricket and the answers were quite interesting.

The board intends to involve the media as a viable stakeholder especially since they are the disseminators of information to the public.