Over the last three years and more particularly over the last six-nine months I have read and listened to statements from Azim Bassarath (president of TTCB), Allen Sammy (of TTCB), Surey Ragoonath (CEO of TTCB), and statements emanating from the offices of the WICB. For now I prefer to deal with three issues that will allow cricket lovers throughout the Caribbean to understand just how shallow and superficial I feel the thinking is within the leadership of our cricket.
First issue: The notion that there is a burden to rent the Queen’s Park Oval.
For enlightenment (outside of CPL) we have had no international cricket in Trinidad for the last two years. Historically when things were good we got one Test Match and two One Days or a One Day and a T20 which effectively is seven days of cricket.
Just to maintain the outfield and pitch at the oval requires four full time daily staff (a supervisor and three others) at a five-six days per week, which equates to a weekly wage of $6,000 and an annual wage of $300,000.
The public must be made aware that to rent the facility for the seven equivalent days is marginally more than this annual cost and this excludes costs associated with soil treatment, chemicals, rollers and a host of other equipment, etc. We have not even talked about maintenance of buildings, insurance, facilities management, etc.
How can any sensible person even believe that the alternative to the QPCC is to build and outfit and maintain a $1 billion dollar facility to accommodate seven days of cricket at best. And now the same governments are preaching public/private partnership.
Isn’t that what it should have been from the start? Not a single national entity in the First World entertains the thought of owning a ground. Not the NBA, NFL, England and Wales Cricket Board, Australia Cricket Board, English FA, German FA, etc.
And what is the knock-on effect of this impoverished thinking? No respect for cricket history.
This unenlightened approach pervades not only Trinidad but the entire Caribbean.
Let’s take two examples. Instead of coming together with Georgetown Cricket Club, Guyana builds a multi-million dollar stadium out of town (some will say behind God’s back) to be used for a pittance number of days per year and as a result the rich history of Georgetown Cricket Club has been forgotten, the beautiful pavilion a disgrace to its participants—Fredericks, Lloyd, Kallicharan, Kanhai, Gibbs.
I shudder to think what and where the board with all the Test hundreds and five-wicket halls must look like.
Similarly Antigua unnecessarily builds a new cricket facility and forsakes the Antigua Recreation Ground with the history of the fastest test hundred by a West Indian and not one, but two individual world batting records. It is now confined to football use. You think we know what we do?
Second issue: This farce called Professional Retainer Contracts for WI players.
Is that what it is? This idea that because we pay cricketers to “train daily” across the region makes us professional is a total joke. What we have actually done is turn these so-called professional players into glorified Cepep cricketers. If a player has no real ambition to play for the West Indies but is selected into the programme, where the pay is so significantly better than anything he can dream of earning, don’t the authorities expect the player to milk it?
Previously the players’ payment was a graded match fee—no first team selection, no big pay. In order to obtain the better wage there was a definite need to compete, to value your physical fitness, your mental preparation. Your entire cricket skill had to improve. Now that we have brought is a Cepep-type approach to the cricket, can anyone tell me if they actually saw a single player on show in the Nagico Super 50 who looked hungry to make it to the top? I saw a host of overweight or unfit players and consistent mediocrity!
It is amazing to me that our administrators still don’t understand that in world sport—single player events or team events—there must be and will always be superstars. The world understands it but our administrators in the Caribbean still don’t get it. Warne, Lara, Tendulkar, Gayle are they equal to the others?
Third issue: National development programmes.
What a waste—another recipe for nepotism and corruption. Every form of development throughout the world of sport is at club level. These clubs then expand links to the community and schools. Regional boards must have offices from where they administer the game but we fool ourselves by giving development money to these regional boards for who to gain? Where does the money go? Is there a real benefit for the sport?
How local corporate sponsors get pulled into this type of thinking is just unbelievable. QPCC continues to produce a factory of Trinidad and West Indies cricketers.
Why? We have dedicated Saturday and Sunday coaching programmes for ages seven-15; we have links to all the schools in and around Port-of-Spain; we have links to the entire east/west corridor; our under 19s go on development tours; we have dedicated qualified in-house coaches and not one cent of development money comes from the TTCB. We do it for ourselves because we understand it and live it 365 days a year for 125 years.
Nepotism, corruption and the grab for power continues unchecked. Unfortunately the administrators don’t know that they don’t know, and worst, the people that vote for them also don’t know that they don’t know. We are doomed without serious intervention.
Brent Augustus
Former Trinidad Under-19 Player & QPCC Captain