Editorial | Cricket pitches and governance

Johnny Grave’s observation of the need to lift the profile and training of curators of Caribbean cricket grounds is an important matter that should be followed up on.

But Mr Grave, the CEO of Cricket West Indies (CWI), the regional sport’s governing body, must be aware that his proposal oughtn’t to be a discreet action, and can’t be sustainably pursued, in the absence of a rebuilt foundation for cricket in the Caribbean, including at the grassroots level.

For while the shortcomings of grounds management is glaring, it is far from the only thing wrong with West Indies cricket, which has been in a long-term, and some fear, terminal decline. There are no clear signs of the bosses pursuing discernible strategies for its revival.

So, it is back to a discussion about the governance of regional cricket, a debate CWI has engaged with a singular lack of energy. Indeed, insofar that it has the issue on its agenda, the board has failed to seriously consult the core of regional stakeholders, cricket fans.

Meanwhile, at the domestic level, and certainly in Jamaica, cricket’s governing bodies seem to exist somewhere between catatonia and narcolepsy, notwithstanding the recent signs of life in the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) with the announcement by vice president, Dr Donovan Bennett, of his intention of challenge Billy Heaven for the presidency in 2024. Mr Heaven has been the president of the JCA since 2013, during which time, according to Dr Bennett, cricket’s decline has accelerated.

Jamaica, in that respect, is not unique. The crisis in cricket is region-wide.

On the specifics of cricket grounds, what Mr Grave – an Englishman who has been the top line executive in West Indies cricket for seven years – said is true. They are not in great shape. Pitches no longer have unique characters. It is no easy to recruit people to work on pitches.

POOR ECONOMICS

A large part of the problem is the poor economics of cricket in the Caribbean and declining participation in the sport. Being a groundsman in the Caribbean – except during Test matches when a curator may get some attention and asked how pitch might play – isn’t a high-status job. Often, it is almost itinerant. The pay is low; pension and other benefits unlikely.

Or, as Travis Reid, who was the groundsman at Jamaica’s Lucas Cricket Club, told this newspaper in 2017: “You have to love the game to be a groundsman … It is an underpaid job in Jamaica because nobody recognises the work that the groundsmen do. The main reason why I do it is because of my club Lucas…”

The deeper issue is that clubs like Lucas, and others across the Caribbean, except for a few elite ones, or national stadia, for whose upkeep governments might pay, can’t afford to pay. At the same time, they are not attracting successors to people like Mr Reid, and sometimes former cricketers, who did it for the love of the sport. And unlike other countries, neither has ground curation, despite efforts at a certification programme at the Cave Hill, Barbados campus of the University of the West Indies, been made into a profession to which young people might aspire. It is seen as menial work.

Rightly, Mr Grave identified the need to turn this around.

“We’ve got to play a leadership role in that,” he told the Observer newspaper. “We need to lead on that science; we need to lead in the training; and we need to elevate the role of groundsmen so it’s attractive.”

Preparing cricket pitches is a specialised element of ground curation. They aren’t necessary if people aren’t playing cricket. However, they are essential to playing good cricket, and will be essential part of any revival of the sport.

NOT DISCREET MATTERS

Put another way, the issues identified by Johnny Grave, which is implicit in his acknowledgement that CWI must play a role in fixing them, are not discreet matters. They are part and parcel of the larger question of the survival and growth of the game in the Caribbean, which has had a profound impact on the region’s social, cultural and political development. Neither are they separate from the governance crises that has plagued West Indies cricket for decades, without, this newspaper believes, good faith efforts by those in charge, to fundamentally address them.

So, the CWI has over more than two decades commissioned reports on its governance structure by the Kittian lawyer and cricketer, Charles Wilkins, the former Jamaican prime minister, P.J. Patterson, the Grenadian academic and former principal of the UWI, Cave Hill campus, Eudine Barriteau, and Jamaican business executive and senator, Don Wehby. At best, it has implemented wee bits of the recommendations of those, giving the appearance of doing something while keeping control of the West Indies cricket in the hands of a narrow group at the helm of territorial boards.

This newspaper still supports the suggestion by the Barriteau committee for the suspension of the board until the creation of a new, more representative structure for the sport. We commend it to CWI.

And as we suggested after the announcement that the Jamaica Tallawahs have given up their franchise in the Caribbean Premier League because of, they claimed, a lack of government’s economic support, the government should engage stakeholders in a conversation on the role of sport in national development – both social and economic.