Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is convinced that the cricket programme at the University of the West Indies can trigger a significant overhaul of the game in Barbados and the West Indies.
While public opinion is divided on the participation of the UWI?Cave Hill Campus in domestic cricket, the campus principal said that the high bar set by the team should be emulated by clubs to raise standards.
He was speaking to MIDWEEK SPORT following Sagicor UWI’s capture of the domestic Twenty20 title which extended their dominance of local cricket.
Sir Hilary likened the UWI programme to one implemented by the Empire Club in its early days and said the players at the Cave Hill Campus had now proven that the model works.
“Remember that the Cave Hill project is a smaller part of a wider project. We are concerned not only with Barbados cricket but also with West Indies cricket and this is why we have brought the High Performance Centre (HPC) to Cave Hill,” he said.
“I spent a fair amount of time designing that centre and winning support from Sagicor to fund it in order to produce players for the West Indies for the future.
“We are seeing the Cave Hill Campus as an incubator to rebuild West Indies cricket through the HPC and rebuild Barbados cricket through the Cave Hill team,” he said.
“It is a programme and it is a strategy; a model that we have put together. It says talent, plus training, plus discipline, plus mentoring equals excellence.
“We very vigorously apply that equation, that model, to our cricketers and they have demonstrated that it works,” the UWI principal said.
“We would like to see a similar programme developed in all of our clubs.
“I am a great fan of Empire Cricket Club. As you know, up until the 1930s and 40s Barbados cricket was dominated by the Pickwicks and Wanderers and so on. Then came Empire, the first major club from the community, from the working people, and they put together a programme of discipline, mentoring, talent and nurturing.
“So you may very well say that in a funny kind of way we have implemented the Empire strategy of old at Cave Hill today.
“What Empire did for Barbados cricket in the 40s, 50s and 60s we would like to do for Barbados cricket now.”
Sir Hilary admitted that funding would be a challenge for the clubs and made reference to the use of the Student Amenities Fee as a vital financial resource for the university.
He suggested the clubs call on past players to play a role as they seek to emulate what UWI has achieved.
“Empire Club has an alumni network of great West Indies and Barbados cricketers. All the members of Empire should get together and find a way to put a funding strategy in place for Empire Cricket Club. I know they can do it,” he said.
Sir Hilary offered his support to Empire in any such undertaking and expressed a desire to make a similar contribution to the Maple Club which he represented as a youngster.
“We have the funds in Barbados to help these clubs. All we need do is to get the persons who have the funding to see a sense of purpose in helping these clubs to revive their standards in the interest of Barbados and West Indies cricket,” he said.
