LOOKING back at this week’s revelations of the state of the Guernsey Cricket Board finances, I can think of a couple of successful businessmen who will have looked at the headlines and quietly said to themselves: ‘told you so’.

Suggestions of gross over-spending have been idly circulating for quite a while and now the GCB have come clean on their situation – and well done to them for being open – it is the right time for the overhaul of the management of local cricket.

The truth is that most, if not all, employees of the Guernsey Cricket Board who were served notice of losing their jobs, will get them back.

Only this time the job spec. could and should be different and the salary will be reduced.

Belts need to be tightened.

There will be those who will point the finger at GCB chairman David Piesing (pictured) for getting the game into this situation, but that would be too easy and a tad cruel on a man who has done a huge amount to take it forward.

He is still well in credit in my book.

Piesing has overseen a huge upturn in Guernsey cricket fortunes, not least with his sterling work behind the scenes in establishing the island as associate members of the cash-rich International Cricket Council.

The problem lies in that his calculations on the level of ICC funding for the Guernsey game were affected by outside sources, such as the Champions League not going ahead in Pakistan and the Zimbabwe situation.

But, more crucially in my eyes, he has overseen too many soft jobs for the boys and cricket cannot sustain them.

In a nutshell, employment and the terms of it, has been far too pally for the sport’s own good.

We should not be surprised, though, because this is a Guernsey way of doing things. We mix, we make friends, we see opportunities for them, especially if they are very good at playing the game.

It is very easy to do.

The mix with Jon Ravenscroft’s fantastic ICG Centre has also clouded the issue.

But the good news is that due to the vigilance of the GCB’s chief executive Mark Latter and the persistence of vice-chairman Dave Nussbaumer, the situation is being addressed and the game should come to no long-term harm at all.

In fact, the new working practices if they are set right, will make cricket stronger for it.

But as the GCB moves forward it has to realise, and I’m sure as England will beat Australia in the current 50-over series that it will, that they need to run it as a tight business.

ONCE the money and employment situation has been sorted, Mark Latter should start taking a look at the structure of evening cricket for next season and, in particular, perhaps the rules governing who plays in Division One.

One former island captain described it recently as Division One-and-a-half, but when you look at some of the sides turning out this past week one would suggest it is nearer Division One and three-quarters.

After Cobo Tigers’ latest Division One loss to Odey Rovers on Thursday evening, an experienced campaigner commented: ‘You can’t possibly allow the winners of this to go down in history as Division One champions’.

His view, and I tend to agree, was that the game he’d just seen reach an exciting climax, was more akin to Division Two.

Re-branding the top division as Division Two might be an answer to solve this odd situation where the real might lies with Cobo in the new ELT20 competition on grass, but yet the same club could find themselves relegated from Division One.

Whether you like or admire Cobo or not, it would not be good for the game if the strongest team is not involved in what everyone still considers as the top league – Division One.

One of a couple of things need to happen for next summer.

Either make the ELT20 as the recognised Division One with the winners receiving the Rozel Shield or keep this four-team league totally separate from the Barclays Evening League and simply ease the restrictions placed on the island elite and allow them to play the traditional game on an occasional basis.

I can see what the GCB were attempting to do, but it has been overly harsh on the elite and to the detriment of the evening league and its image.

Whoever wins this year’s Division One will know, deep down, that they won it largely by default.‘In a nutshell, employment and terms of it, has been far too pally for the sport’s own good’