Saint Lucia will be hosting the 2009 Windward Islands Under-15 Cricket Tournament, with matches scheduled to be held at the Dennery and Beauchamp Cricket Grounds, respectively.
However, instead of having the grounds closed to facilitate venue preparation, the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association has gone ahead with the hosting of the SMJ Twenty20 Tournament.
Persons have no problem with the hosting of the SMJ Twenty20 Tournament, except the timing of the hosting.
Those who are in charge must not reserve quality preparation of Test, One-Day Internationals, and regional and international Twenty20 matches, but for all regional tournaments, at all levels.
Next Sunday December 4 2009, the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association will be hosting the Men and Ladies Twenty20 finals, scheduled to be played as been announced at the Dennery Cricket Grounds.
The very next day is the scheduled start of the 2009 Windward Islands Under-15 Cricket Tournament.
What message are sending to our young cricketers when the fields upon which they will be pitting their budding skills against their regional counterparts, have not been closed to facilitate preparation?
How can anyone in the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association who is the tournament’s implementing agency for the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control tell us that they have done what is needed to adequately prepare the venues.
About one month ago, a team of officials from the Ministry of Youth and Sports led by Sports Director Victor Reid with the Saint Lucia national Under-15 cricket coach Keith Charlery part of the delegation, paid a site visit to the Dennery Cricket Ground.
During that visit, a number of recommendations were accepted aimed at carrying out certain works to prepare the ground surface, pitch, and dressing rooms for the teams.
The Saint Lucia National Cricket Association was not present, and to date, there has been no information in the public’s domain on the upcoming tournament.
Can someone tell us what is going on and we sometimes wonder why the rest of the Caribbean continues to leave us behind in sports?
When one takes into consideration the rapidly dwindling sponsorship monies available, and the need for the administration of the sport in the region to take on a radical turnaround, it hurts to experience what passes for administration in the islands.
A call was placed to the Chief Executive Officer of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control Lennox John on the issue of venue preparation, and marketing of the tournament.
Like the recently held Windward Islands Senior Cricket tournament, there has been and continue to be, a tomblike silence emanating out of the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association on status of those tournaments.
Marketing is key, and if the relevant authorities will take on board the offers of public relations and other forms of assistance, and not look at the messenger and deal with the message, we in these parts would be better off in our hosting of tournaments, and preparation of teams.
Another key component is information dissemination, and up to the present day, the media is yet to receive the statistics of the recently held Windward Islands Senior Cricket tournament, despite attempts to get such.
Who were the top-scorers? Who took the most wickets? How many half-centuries were scored? How many centuries were scored? Were there any five-wicket hauls?
Even when the issue of the schedule of matches, which the media was never given, was raised at the press conference at the Green Parrot Hotel, no remedial action was taken.
It took the efforts of one sports journalist to go out of his way to prepare stories along with photographs, did the regional media get the necessary information on the tournament.
Many members of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control did receive these reports, and it was expected that certain measures would be put in place to change the way media receives on these tournaments.
That is a critical component in the marketing of tournaments, and it does not take one with degrees and doctorates to do what is needed.
What is need are persons who are sincere, committed, and are radical in their mind-set to think outside the box, in order to strengthen the administrative chain the Caribbean.
The Old Boys Club of cricket administration in the Caribbean continues to hurt the fans, chase away potential sponsors, and leave the media bitter and cynical, for the although massa’ days are long gone, the colour of one’s skin is still a defining factor in these parts to get those in charge of our cricket to listen and do what is absolutely needed…to once again give us hope that our legacy is safe in their hands.
(Robertson S Henry/www.sportcaraibe.net)
