Sharp Practice or Good Business

If you read the report from the Cricinfo Canada home page dated July 29, 2007 and compare it to the press release of the Canadian Cricket Association released to its home page July 31, 2007, you will see a substantial disconnect.

The Canadian Cricket Association down plays its role leading to the resignation of Mike Colle, Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. The Canadian Cricket Association homepage leads off with a piece titled “Ontario Government Grant to the Ontario Cricket Association” omitting to insert the words under scrutiny in the title line. Cricinfo leads with “Can $1 million grant under fire” and “Minister resigns over grant to Ontario Cricket Association”. The grant is presently under review.

Among the problems of Canadian, as distinguished from Ontario cricket, is finance. Ontario and a distant next British Columbia, provide the bulk of members, dues, and infrastructure. Therein lays a dilemma.

The genus of the idea that Ontario should fund and receive the majority of the benefits emanating from C.C.A. initiatives was germinated during the presidency of Jimmy Siew, nurtured by his successor Geoff Edwards, and has blossomed under the presidency of Ben Sennik, ably assisted by his three vice presidents, two from Ontario, one from British Columbia, one of which served as a vice president in all the aforementioned administrations.

The idea is a modest one. The C.C.A., which is head quartered in Ontario, would apply for grants from the Ontario government on restrictive terms that only Ontario residents would benefit from payment of their expenses while on active duty on C.C.A. assignments. That arrangement has been condoned by the I.C.C. among others. Those  modest first steps have now blossomed to include applications for capital grants for infrastructure improvements to benefit private interests, for example $1 million to benefit among others, the King City Cricket Grounds which is owned and operated by a private  not a public trust.

So what you say. The money goes to benefit cricket. End of story, far from it.

The potential consequences to cricket not only in Ontario but in Canada are immense. First of all the exercise indicates the public policy naiveté of the C.C.A. executive who were elected on a platform of “fiscal prudence and transparency”. The C.C.A. loaned its good name and authored the grant application but they are not in control for the purposes of expensing or reporting on the use of funds. Second, fundraisers are traditionally paid up to 50% of money raised. The C.C.A. asked for $150,000 but the grant was approved at $1million of which $250,000 has apparently been expensed to date. The C.C.A. has traditionally charged a 7% levy to raise, administer or conduit funds on behalf of the provinces. Alternately, a fundraiser may be granted an indirect benefit such as rent free or special terms of use or benefit. Most likely the Ontario grant was utilized to pay for capital improvements to the King City cricket ground to host the I.C.C. under 19 world cup qualifying tournament and the I.C.C. contribution to the C.C.A. for the event to the C.C.A. general revenues to fulfill the promise of the President of the C.C.A. to raise dollars for the C.C.A. Double dipping, sharp practice or good business practice, it makes for bad public policy. Neither the government of the day nor the rank and file tax paying cricketer should stand for it.

The statement in the C.C.A. press release that,

“The C.C.A. received no funding whatsoever from the Ontario government, either for that specific project or any other project”,

misses the mark. The issues, in no order of priority, are the C.C.A. acting as a fundraiser? Are they receiving a benefit direct or indirect? Has the benefit been declared? What is the value of the benefit? Second, the issue is whether private interests including private trusts are receiving the benefit of public dollars and is the C.C.A acting as facilitator outside the scope of its objects and placing its tax exempt charity status at risk. Third, the wounds created in the Ontario bureaucracy by the C.C.A. and O.C.A. misunderstanding of its function in accessing public Ontario tax dollars or grants will take decades to heal. Four, nature abhors a vacuum and with Ontario Cricket Association gun shy, after it’s recent mauling by the Ontario Auditor General, and lacking the credibility to take the lead in Canadian cricket affairs, the mantle will fall to the west and British Columbia, who as we speak is preparing for an extra-ordinary general meeting to amend the voting and electoral system to supplant or disenfranchise the individual cricketer in favour of a weighted vote, based on the number of teams; administrative convenience to achieve an undemocratic end. The emergency, “the browns” are primed to once again take control of B.C. cricket and they must be stopped.

Ontario cannot retreat to lick its wounds. They must take the lead in cleaning house at the C.C.A. If the job is left to British Columbia, the issues will not be investigated, no bridges mended, no fiscal alternatives pursued. It will be sharp business practice, the quick fix, business as usual, only some of the non British Columbia faces will change. Mr. Ben Sennik and his executive must resign; failing that the Ontario Provincial director should move a motion of non confidence in the entire C.C.A. executive, to be voted on at the C.C.A. annual general meeting in November 2007. That resolution will not come from British Columbia whose incumbents seek only to get their snout further in the C.C.A. trough for the benefit of a few cricketclubs and if that be at the expense of Canadian or Ontario cricket, those are the spoils of war.

Chris Van Twest
August 14th, 2007