Local cricket Journalists rates GCB’s Media relations & marketing ‘disappointing’

Jul 12, 2022 Sports

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By Sean Devers

The saga that has plagued Guyana’s cricket for close to a decade seemed to be finally over as Bissondyal Singh was elected unopposed in March 2021 as the New President of the Guyana Cricket Board for the next two years.

The last time the GCB held a press conference was on December 5, 2021at the Grand Coastal Hotel on the East Coach of Demerara.

This was the first press conference since April when the youthful and hardworking Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr. played a pivotal role ensuring that proper elections were held and then eventually the previous Administration which spent 10 years in power, was defeated.

Speaking on last Tuesday’s ‘Sean Devers Sports Watch’ on Kaieteur Radio, leading local Cricket Journalists Akeem Greene of Newsroom, Brandon Corlette of Guyana Times and host of the programme Sean Devers of Kaieteur News agreed that the Media relations and the marketing of the GCB programmes and events leaves much to be desired.

Greene, who covered the last regional First-Class tournament in Trinidad, said he was disappointed with the marketing of the ongoing Bangladesh series in Guyana.

“Look they knew of the schedule for quite some time. I was informed that there were a few logistical problems with the sales of tickets. But that does not take away the fact that could have marketed these matches long in advance.

Greene added that it was reported by the media that cricket was coming to Guyana and the dates.

“I have mentioned it some conferences with the Ministry of Culture or GOA…that you can’t depend on the mainstream media to promote activities…when I say mainstream media I mean us as Journalists. Sporting Bodies have marketing departments to get out ads.”

Greene said he saw a Facebook post that the person did not know there was cricket in Guyana.

Devers, who also covered the First-Class matches in Trinidad for Kaieteur News and for the CWI YouTube channel as a commentator, interjected that he said he hoped it did not rain and the taxi driver, who is a cricket fan, asked why?

When he said because it would affect the cricket, the taxi driver said he was not aware that there was cricket here.

Greene added that he felt the GCB could have done a way better job in marketing the matches.

“I saw something on Facebook a few days but they knew of the schedule long in advance since CWI sent it over a month ago with the summer of cricket. They could have let the public know of the matches in Guyana and even played up the weekend games,” Greene continued.

“I can tell you not a lot of people know that there are matches in Guyana. A lot of people don’t read the papers on a daily basis or sit down and listen to a newscast. Many times people are on the road and listen to various Radio shows.

That is where you could have gotten a plug about the cost for tickets. People are calling to ask where tickets are being sold. I only know about the cricket board. In the past they would be sold in Essequibo and Berbice and I think early advertising could have increased the capacity at the Stadium.”

Devers opined that for CPL you will see a massive difference in the promotion of the Event with commercials being sent to the music stations because it will be a different organisation doing it who understands Marketing Events.

“As soon as this series is finished you will see massive advertisements of the cricket Carnival because they know how important it is to the Country. We already know that the sale of tickets for the Guyana will start as soon as the Bangladesh series is over,” Devers said.

“Look, CPL already has a list of Events for the Cricket Carnival on social media since cricket is now a business. If you want to make money, if you have to invest money.

I know the Board is operating under financial constraints but you could get financial partners to sponsor the promotion campaign,” Greene suggested.

Corlette, who covered the games in Trinidad for TV and newspapers, said there was not enough Marketing of the matches in Guyana.

“When you look at some of the other Boards pages…social media is a big thing today. We know it’s the digital era and not a lot of people will read the daily newspaper or watch the Newscasts. You must cater for all audiences, the young people will be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The GCB has to do more when it comes to Marketing on the Social networks,” added Corlette, who owns theCricnation592website.

Speaking from Berbice, Corlette said no tickets are being sold in there and those from Berbice have to go all the way to Georgetown to purchase tickets from the Board Office while most of them are not able to buy them on-line.

Devers said since the GCB was formed in 1946 there have been 12 Presidents and informed that his research showed that this is the worse cricket Board when it comes to dealing with the media and getting what they are doing out to the public.

Devers added that when it comes to Marketing and disseminating information on what the BCB is doing BCB President Hilbert Foster is brilliant.

Corlette agreed with Devers but said this Board would say that there was Covid and the past Administration left them to do a lot of cleaning up.

“It’s actually a norm these days when you try to ask certain questions or try to access this transparent GCB…it’s not easy.

You can’t have one press conference in such a long time and make a whole lot of promises and not delivering,” continued Corlette.

However, Corlette noted that you have to factor in lots of issues including Covid.

Greene said while he did not know the GCB views on these issues, he would say yes, they need to face the Media officially more.

“They had a grand press conference back in December but there were a few…a few times, that we interacted with them.

But overall if you are talking about getting more information and clarity on issues from the Board, it goes back to having a good PR team…look at the Barbados Cricket Association and Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board Facebook…they post things on a regular basis, they get traction,” stated Greene.

“Key example…I will answer it in this way. The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson, during the pandemic would go live a lot and you would see the amount of traction their page has now because of constant posting of Photos or Videos of their events,” Greene pointed out.

He said he had a conversation with someone at the Board and they were telling him how key social media is. They had so many Camps this year. They could have gone live on their Facebook page and say we are live at the Women’s camp.

“That gets traction and creates interactions with the fans. But that could be time consuming and they might have had to hire someone to do that.

I know Claude Raphael is the head of the PRO department of the Board and it is what should be done. I don’t know if he has the capability to do that. It’s just about being modern and having Facebook, Twitter as Brandon would have mentioned,” Greene posited.

“But there needs to be more regular interactions since this could clear up a lot of controversy easier, there would no longer be rumours that are spewing which could bring division to any sport,” Greene opined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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