Amid the euphoria and excitement of the inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Barbados’ disappointing performance in three recent regional youth tournaments might have gone unnoticed by most cricket fans.
Our teams in the Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 age groups returned home without any silverware or fanfare. Since this is the nursery for our senior teams, such woeful displays are cause for concern.
The new Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) board of management must definitely do a post-mortem and demand an explanation from the managers and coaches as to why these teams performed so dismally.
It can’t be business as usual even though I’m not convinced that the development of cricket is the priority of many of the BCA?members who rushed to the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre recently to vote.
Questions must be asked and answers given to ascertain what really went wrong and what problems there are with this country’s youth cricket, which has producing many outstanding youth cricketers over the years.
Are the boys getting the right preparation and coaching?
Were the best teams selected, and what was the criterion for selection? Why weren’t certain boys who were performing not chosen and why were others, who were improving by leaps and bounds, not afforded the opportunity to vie for national selection?
Were the right people appointed to select, coach and manage the teams?
Is the mainly once-a-week net practice at the Everton Weekes Centre Of Excellence the right method for prospective national representatives or should they go through a more rigorous training programme?
Also, how on earth can we continue to send away national youth teams and not utilize the skills of Roddy Estwick, the most successful coach in schools’ cricket in Barbados?
It is really ridiculous that a couple of individuals who are not deeply involved in cricket at any youth level in this country continue to be given roles with national teams while others who have been making meaningful contributions for donkey’s years continue to be bypassed.
Questions have been asked, and rightly, about the wisdom of having only BCA staff coaching national teams, especially at the youth level and with the women’s teams.
The improvement of the overall standard of our young cricketers is just as important as winning titles. However, when it is clear the majority of the boys have not benefited from playing in these recent tournaments, heads must roll.
Barbados’ youth cricket woes started in the WICB Tobago House Of Assembly Under-17 Tournament.
After starting off impressively with three consecutive wins, the young Bajans slumped to successive losses to Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Islands, thereby having to settle for second place behind winners Trinidad and Tobago.
The Under-15 side had a similar win-loss record, finishing fourth on 39 points. Maybe our new representatives at West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) meetings should ask that this tournament be held in Barbados for the first time next year.
The Barbados Under-19 side fared even worse as they finished one from the bottom in the six-team competition in the three-day competition.
Only the Leewards, who ironically defeated Barbados when the teams met, finished below Barbados.
Barbados’s losing streak continued in the one-day tournament that followed, with four defeats in six matches for a disappointing 13.7 points for fifth place.
Readers of this column will recall that I was totally against the decision to select all three youth teams without the benefit of a single trial match.
Match play is extremely important, especially in pressure situations, and trial matches have over the years, as I have said before, separated the men from the boys.
On many occasions, players not previously in the reckoning would upset the apple cart and one or two of the favoured ones would fail the test. Performance counts, not just potential, so players know they must show their worth and not depend on the goodwill of a selector.
There have also been a few instances where our senior teams have been selected without the playing of a single trial match. This situation must not continue as we go forward. The BCA?should not see paying groundstaff and providing lunches as too costly in terms of staging trial matches.
It would also be remiss of me if I didn’t congratulate Joel Garner on his re-election as BCA president for another two-year term, as well as all the others who were elected to serve cricket in this country.
But it is really a pity the BCA membership rejected the hard-working Conde Riley, especially for the post of vice-president, after he had a change of heart when he failed in his bid to unseat Garner as president.
Riley has been a good servant of cricket in Barbados and the Caribbean as a WICB director and it is hoped he and Garner can settle whatever differences they may have. Certainly, a way can be found to utilize his skills on the appropriate committees.