The late legendary West Indies fast bowler Malcolm Marshall was remembered on Monday bank holiday when a Twenty20 Cricket Festival was played in his memory at the Desmond Haynes Oval, a venue named after his former West Indies teammate.
Deferred from Independence Day, the T20 Festival attracted four teams: Empire, UWI (the eventual champions), the G Spot Invitational XI featuring several Barbados cricketers, and the Lee Bistro All Saints.
It was indeed a nice gesture for the organisers to invite All Saints, a side from the Barbados Cricket League, as the fourth team, even though they were humbled by ten wickets by UWI.
Perhaps the organisers could look at involving Banks and Spartan, two clubs which Marshall represented at the Division One level, in next year’s event.
There is also the regional option in which the T20 club champions in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago can be invited to play against Barbados’ T20 champions and even make it a two-day affair with six teams.
Caterer Mark Gaskin, the former Carlton all-rounder who runs Legend’s Pavilion Bar & Bistro, must be highly commended for putting together the festival, which also included a Malcolm Marshall Memorial Dinner last November.
However, for an event such as this to be sustainable, it would require the Barbados Cricket Association, which has failed to come up with cricketing events outside its domestic programme, as well as corporate Barbados to provide further financial support to Gaskin and his team.
Marshall is regarded as the West Indies’ greatest ever fast bowler and indeed one of the best the world has seen, and it would raise the bar for any event which carries his name.
The final, between UWI and Empire, went past sunset, requiring the use of four portable floodlights. However, these proved inadequate and the match came to a premature end.
In light of this, serious consideration must be given to switching the event to Kensinton Oval.
In fact, the Oval is certainly losing its status as the Mecca of Caribbean cricket, with just a handful of cricket matches being played there since the facility was enhanced for the 2007 World Cup. The festival, coming just before the Regional T20, could be another attraction on the local cricket calendar.
Gaskin has bowled the first ball. Let’s hope others join him at the crease to make it a long innings.
