The region’s cricket development is getting a helping hand from Down Under.
Needy kids throughout the Caribbean will now have the chance to own their own gear, as the Australian-based Caribbean Children’s Cricket Charity is preparing to distribute 23 boxes of equipment across Barbados.
The charity’s founder Tamara Lowe launched the Barbados leg of the initiative yesterday after spending two weeks sharing out the first shipment of gear in Antigua.
“The idea came to me that there’s a lot we can do in Australia to try and support children who may not have access to cricket gear, so I started collecting as much spare equipment as I could.
“And it’s a very simple idea, where we put bats and gloves and pads and helmets into the hands of cricket-loving children here in this proud cricketing region of the world who may not necessarily have access to enough gear,” Lowe explained.
“Two years ago when Sir Richie Richardson was in Sydney as the manager of West Indies, I dropped a letter into the SCG dressing room and I told him I had this idea to send cricket gear all the way from Australia and whether he would be an ambassador. And he was immediately enthusiastic and we have been corresponding for two years to make this happen.
“We are committed to growing the charity and we hope in the future we’ll spread to even more Caribbean nations. Gus Logie is waiting in Trinidad and I am very keen to send gear to Jamaica and Dominica as well and perhaps Nevis and St Kitts,” she added.
An Australian cricket fan, Lowe first came to Barbados as part of the Aussie’s tour in 1999 before returning with her family two years ago for the 2015 Test series. The idea of the charity came to her after she watched her sons play cricket with many children in the region.
Sir Richie came on board as an ambassador, and former director of Elite Cricket in Australia, Jason Krejza, and fellow former Test player Desmond Haynes followed suit.
“I’ve always been someone who loves to know that I am giving back, as I am from Holder’s Hill, an area where a lot of people have given me a lot of things,” said Haynes.
Lowe made her first presentation of equipment to Eagle Hall Primary at Kensington Oval yesterday before going on the road to L.T. Gay and Springer Memorial.
