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Disenchantment with performance is helping to make cricket a marketing liability.

Declining standards at the regional level and persistent failure at Test level have apparently made cricket a very hard sell. It is easier for people to identify with and buy into success than to do a similar thing with failure.

Based on this concept it has become a nightmare for sales persons to offer cricket as a viable product for potential sponsors to align themselves with if they view it from the perspective that money is the one and only bottom line. It usually is in every business; the profit margin is essential.

Some diehard cricket fans may not want to accept the point but the falling popularity of cricket, especially among those under 25, as an unattractive sport to listen to or to watch has occurred because the average person is frustrated by certain developments in the West Indies cricketing world.

In the golden era of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, sales personnel had the easiest of jobs because they had more people lining up to fill advertising spots than they could handle.

The significant change in fortunes has brought a reversal in trends. Sponsors are not as eager as before because they think their products will not reach their target market.

This is the harsh reality that should make media managers take the hard decision not to broadcast live commentary because at the end of the day they still have to satisfy their own costs.

In fact, I think it was such circumstances that forced joint commentaries between the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Voice Of Barbados (VOB).

Indeed, CBC has been forced to bring cricket on its pay-per-view channel when they would rather relay it on the mass-based Channel 8. The bottom line speaks again.

It will most likely happen again because in addition to some disinterest in the sport, the fees to secure the rights to broadcast are also astronomical which means the cost to the station and by extension to viewers will increase.

Is anyone prepared to establish a national fund that will ensure cricket coverage at all times?

Some would suggest that a government with a social transformation policy should be the crusaders in any such move but then they will need support from other sectors of the corporate community to sustain it on a long term basis.

Even so, while cricket is part of our being, we must accept that it won't be shielded or excluded from the various challenges that are arising in a globalised environment.

Still, its loyal stewards can't resign themselves to defeat. They must stand up and fight back if only to safeguard a great West Indian tradition.

It hurts to the core when the West Indies go on overseas tours and there's no live coverage of the exchanges. It makes it appear as though our main cultural symbol is being regarded with fleeting interest. That in itself means that we have to become more vigilant in keeping cricket alive whatever the standard of the game.

And what part the bottom line will continue to play in the sport's survival is left to be seen.

© The Barbados Nation