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Ithas commanded more newspaper column inches and radio and television air time than the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference, the Kennedy plane crash and House of Assembly meetings.

It has rivalled Kadooment and its usual attendant controversies for public attention – and that takes some doing at this time of the year. Indeed, it is not far short of being a Kadooment itself.

The candidates have assembled their teams and proclaimed their worthiness for office with as much fanfare and self-possession as Owen Arthur and David Thompson did back in January.

PR agencies have been employed, Press conferences held, programme time bought, circulars posted, letters planted in the Press.

All we need now are the corned beef and rum, the omnipresent street posters, a couple of mass meetings in Independence Square and Jennifer Laszlo and it would be a full-fledged political campaign, not merely a contest for the presidency of a sporting association with a membership of less than 2 000, or a mere 0.007 per cent of this country's population.

As the sport is cricket, for which Barbados has established a record of excellence second to none and in which Barbadians take justifiable pride, interest in how it is run must create public interest.

This island could never have boasted this reputation or produced its proliferation of great players without the enlightened administrative groundwork of leaders like Sir Harold Austin, Freddie Clairemonte, Mitchie Hewitt, Tony Hinds, Noel Peirce, Eric Inniss, Keith Walcott and Peter Short.

It is that legacy that the current president, Tony Marshall, has inherited and that Sir Conrad Hunte, himself an outstanding product of that heritage, seeks to maintain with his challenge that will be decided, by ballot, at the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) annual general meeting on Thursday evening.

As has been repeatedly reported, Marshall states that he is seeking re-election on the strength of his record of three years in office, principally his financial stewardsip.

Hunte counters that he and his team will place more emphasis on cricket development that he believes has been neglected.

It seems straightforward enough for the mature members of the BCA to consider the candidates, with whose personal credentials they are certainly acquainted, and make their choice without the hullaballoo that has surrounded it.

That may be how it used to be but, in this age, no more. It is ironic that the parameters changed when Marshall first initiated his unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Short in 1993.

In case memories have faded, the NATION reported prior to that meeting that it had been a ``fierce contest''.

``The interest in the duel, and the intensity of the campaigning that has accompanied it, is expected to be reflected in the large turnout of the BCA's members of over 1 300,'' it stated.

``Both men and their supporters have been vigorously canvassing members. Marshall is being backed by a group calling itself the 'Elect Tony Marshall Committee'.''

There was similar electioneering when Marshall came to the post at his second attempt, defeating the incumbent, Cammie Smith, in 1996.

The die had been cast and BCA elections could never be the same again.

Inevitably, such a course has taken it into the public domain and all sorts of odd interpretations are being put on the election.

One of the most bizarre was advanced on a radio phone-in last week. It was, proclaimed the caller, a fight between the ``elite'' schools (Marshall, Harrison College) and the ``lesser'' schools (Hunte, Alleyne), ignoring the cosmopolitan mix of both sides.

The most sinister was advanced in the editorial of the other daily newspaper on Friday. Reaching into a well-worn pack, it pulled out the dog-eared race card, in this case the fading Joker.

Using the peg of last week's ill-advised umpires' strike in the Nortel tournament, prompted by an ill-advised comment by president Marshall, on which to hang its warped thesis, it blamed Marshall's problems in office on ``those who most loudly profess loyalty to kith, kin and Africanity''.

They were caused, it thundered, by ``some reportedly envious of his achievements, others seized of the barrel crab mentality: pull down anyone that rises even if it means none will reach or remain on top; still others incapable of recognising how they portray their own ethnic group, particularly during (a) period of exaggerated race-consciousness''.

It was virulent stuff. It was also mischievous nonsense that would have embarrassed the president it sought to acclaim.

Whatever Marshall's qualities might be in other areas, he has failed to maintain the support of many of those elected to work under him.

Those on his board of management who have left in frustration during his term and others who have now committed themselves to the Hunte ticket are numerous and diverse enough to testify to a seriously fractured organisation.

Marshall contends that, under him, the BCA is in transition so that ``differences of opinion'' can be expected. He complains that the problem is that those differences have been aired outside the BCA, adding: ``I think therein lies a tale.''

It was a concern that was also noted by Smith in his final report as president before Marshall defeated him in 1996:

``The leaking of information has had the effect of stifling discussion as members feared what they said would be taken out of context.

``The use of the media has created a division on the board that has undermined the democratic process.''

It is a reality the BCA members have to confront on Thursday. They know that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The question is who can unite them?

Or is it all about something else altogether?

There is another cricketing presidential race, in both senses of the word, going on in South Africa. There are those at Thursday's meeting here who will be asking what the former South African captain, Kepler Wessels, has asked there.

``Will anyone take time out to discuss cricket because, in many ways, I wonder whether this meeting is about cricket at all. This meeting sounds to me as though it is going to be about power.''