An MSc in Cricket

In the Caribbean cricket is losing its pitch but a new pavilion (classroom) is buzzing with activity around the game. In that, students are taught the management of cricket. At the end of the one-year postgraduate programme, they get a degree from the University of West Indies: an MSc in Cricket Studies.

Introduced four years ago, the PG programme has eight courses, a research project and a practical. According to faculty members, it is designed for people with a minimum required experience of three years in a managerial position in a cricketing environment, or two years in another sport.

Several West Indian players, both past and present, are being contacted to deliver guest lectures. The unique programme, offering the only postgraduate degree in cricket, is taught at the CLR James Centre for Cricket Research at the University of West Indies’ Cave Hill, Barbados, campus. Indian cricket is a key focus area for this academic session: the prestigious Frank Worrell Memorial Lecture will be delivered on the “rise and fall” of the IPL — the “most revolutionary and lucrative tournament in cricket”.

The curriculum

It includes the political and social history of West Indies cricket, contemporary management and financial issues in the West Indies, sports psychology, leadership and human resource management, cricketers’ text and testimonies, cricket and West Indies nationalism. Among the objectives listed is the need to develop managerial talent and contribute to the regional requirement for highly qualified persons in the field of cricket management, besides fostering an appreciation of the role of cricket in West Indian society. The courses have references to Sunil Gavaskar, GR Vishwanath, Ajit Wadekar and his team (that beat the Windies in 1971), Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev’s Devils of 1983.