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By Neto Baptiste
The President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Leon “Kuma” Rodney, is hoping that alliances will be forged with key stakeholders within the sporting fraternity coming out of a planned townhall meeting on September 18.
The sport’s local governing body has invited close to 80 individuals including key government officials, corporate Antigua and members of the media to the first of its kind meeting scheduled for the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
“It has to be a holistic approach and clubs have to now think about our youth arm. The ministry will have to have some kind of collaboration with the association to get things done and as you say, money will play a part of it. I think knowing that the majority of the coaches, if not all the coaches work for the ministry and are paid by the government. Maybe they can find a way – a better way – to utilize them in terms of the development part of it so it’s going to be interesting to see when they’ll come and then what would be the execution,” he said.
Topics like youth cricket, practice facilities and development programmes will be high on the agenda during the meeting while those in attendance will also be able to air their views and ask questions.
Rodney said that coming out of what he hopes will be a successful meeting, the association, along with its stakeholders, must then find ways to improve the system.
“Well, obviously we’ll have to put plans in place to execute whatever comes out of the discussions because that’s why we are having a holistic meeting; because again, as I mentioned, in the past, youth cricket was very vibrant, even school tournaments. Let us agree that the [schools] tournament this year, especially in the school part of it, you don’t want to beat it down, but just reality because I didn’t even know school cricket was playing. But my understanding was the tournament starts in March and finishes in March. Now, that tells you that could not make any sense,” the cricket boss said.
The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 pm and will include members of Cricket West Indies (CWI), officials from the Ministry of Sports, presidents of the various cricket clubs and other stakeholders.
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