Sagicor UWI are doing more than just winning titles.
They’re helping to raise the standard of cricket in Barbados.
That’s according to director of sports at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Roland Butcher, who said not only UWI benefited from its recent cricketing success.
Speaking to MIDWEEK SPORT at Bayfield shortly after UWI captured the Elite Championship, and their fourth successive top-flight title with an innings and 136-run victory over Republic Bank St Catherine Sunday, Butcher said one of the main goals of the university’s sporting programme was to improve the standards of sports here.
“As a university, we always aim for excellence, not only when it comes to academics but also in sports as well,” he added. “Our cricket programme has aimed for that excellence, and for the last four years, our cricketers have achieved that target.
“In developing our programme, one of our main aims was to produce a high level of cricket which along with helping us to be competitive, would also help to lift the standard of cricket in Barbados.
“Once we continue to maintain high cricketing standards, those clubs which are looking to emulate us will have no choice but to lift their own standards and this will result in an improvement in the game of cricket.”
Butcher, who made history on becoming the first black player to represent England in cricket, said that by extension, both the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) were set to benefit from UWI’s cricketing dominance.
He maintained that despite widespread belief that UWI were in opposition to the BCA, nothing could be further from the truth. Pointing out that the university shared the same views and aspirations of the BCA, he said that UWI would continue to support the association however it could.
“Both UWI and the BCA have a common goal, which is to see an improvement in the standard of cricket in Barbados.
“Most people think that we are in opposition to the BCA, but we aren’t. We are here to lend support to them in whatever way that we can, because at the end of the day, cricket in Barbados will be the main beneficiary,” Butcher said.
