By Neto Baptiste
The responsibility for the development of cricket at the youth and or grassroots level, falls squarely at the feet of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA).
This is the view of former West Indies fast bowler and President of the Liberta Sports Club, Kenneth Benjamin, who said that although more young players are engaged within the Ministry of Sports programme, there is little to no time available for meaningful development within the schools and that the association should piggyback on the numbers that participate at the level.
“If you really look at it, there has never been any development programme in the ministry’s programme, it has always just been competitions. I think the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association needs to charter and be in charge of this grassroots programme. They can get funding through Cricket West Indies and other private sector,” he said.
“When are we going to do the development work in the schools because there is no time and that has been the problem. The schools competitions to me, gives the children an opportunity to play more competition but in terms of development, I cannot see, based on what we have here and how the ministry functions and the school functions, what time and when there is ever going to be any time to do any serious development work in the schools,” he added.
Benjamin’s statement was in response to the questions regarding youth and grassroots development in cricket as the region grapples with consistent poor performances by the senior men’s team.
The former player, while speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, said the programme is not unique to Antigua and Barbuda but the cricket associations must shoulder the responsibility and the blame for the poor quality of cricket within their respective programmes and or competitions.
He said it’s either they don’t understand what it will take or are just incapable of getting the job done.
“Lazy and understanding the importance; I don’t believe a lot of the associations and a lot of the association members understand that is the key and that is where the Australia and England spend a lot of their monies. They might think a lot of the Test players make millions but if you look at what they spend at the youth level, maybe it’s billions because they recognize that if they don’t put this in place then where are they going to get the players to maintain the quality at the top,” Benjamin said.
“A lot of them are just hoping that one of these days, a next Jewel Andrew might come through or a next Alzarri might come through but you just check how far and in between they are so we have to put things in place so it happens,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Leeward Islands and West Indies Young Cricketers player, John Archibald, supported Benjamin’s thoughts but believes the support for young athletes should come earlier in life and not after they would have advanced to the bigger stage where they often would not need the level of support.
“Somebody would come in, go to a Pan Am Games, they get some gold or something and we line up and it’s a red carpet event and you see all of the officials but what about that athlete while coming through who probably needs a running shoe? What about that young fast bowler that young fast bowler who can’t come to practice maybe for the last three weeks because he doesn’t have a cricket boots and stuff like this so we have to nip things in the bud at an earlier stage where the youngsters need the help. When they reach to West Indies level, these guys can take care of themselves,” he said.
There are no existing grassroots or cricket development programmes on island and although local cricket authorities have hinted that plans are in the pipeline for such a programme, there has been no concrete word or evidence as to when or if it will start.
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