Franklyn bats for cricket centre of excellence

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

The Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) needs to quickly install cricket pitches in schools, clubs and parishes, establish a cricket centre for excellence and upgrade the quality of coaches in schools, if it is to overcome the challenges it now faces in raising the standard of players being produced locally.

The recommendations were made by attorney Delano Franklyn, during a lecture he presented last Tuesday in the Grace Foundation Lecture Series, on 'Sports In Jamaica: A Local an International Perspective'.

Lamenting the sorry state of West Indies cricket that has been in decline for more than 15 years, and citing the fact that the nature of West Indies cricket is determined by what happens at the domestic level, Franklyn said Jamaica needed to work to improve the quality of cricket at the club and school levels.

Upgrading should speed up

He also urged that the ongoing upgrading of facilities take place at a faster pace and implored Jamaican representatives on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) to use their influence to secure required changes in the administration of West Indies cricket.

The cricket centre for excellence, he said, would be a place where the JCA could take the most talented youngsters and put them in a controlled environment where they can hone their skills. It would also be a place where coaches would constantly be exposed to the best techniques of the game, thereby putting them in a position to impart their knowledge to young cricketers.

On a broader scale, Franklyn said that in addition to the weaknesses in the administration of cricket at the regional level the game was also being undermined by selfish players who, despite not producing the desired results, keep demanding more and more from administrators.

"The nationalistic fervour and understanding of the struggle by the people of the region to overcome slavery, racial servitude, colonial domination and imperial domination that drove earlier West Indian cricketers to be the best at their craft has been lost on recent and current West Indies players," he said. "The notion of self, the dominance of individualism, undergirded by the accumulation of wealth at all cost, has deprived the current West Indies players of the notion of team and the application of self to the game."

Increased financial packages

This notion of self, he said, and the individualisation of the sport has led to constant demands for increased financial packages, despite their declining performances and behavioural tendencies that make a mockery of the game. The incessant demand for increased pay packages has triggered repeated clashes between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association.

In light of what has transpired, Franklyn suggests, among other things, that a scheme be set up "whereby West Indies cricketers are paid on the basis of their performance. We are not short of expertise in the Caribbean to develop a performance-based theme. It is untenable for persons whose performances have been on the decline to be constantly demanding increased pay packages."

He also suggested that no player be scheduled to play for the West Indies unless he has signed a contract clearly stipulating that to which he is entitled.

Also among his many suggestions was that governments in the region, acting through CARICOM, must do all in their power to influence change in the WICB. "West Indies cricket belongs to the West Indian people and we no longer have confidence that the West Indies Cricket Board is exercising their custodial rights in our best interest," he said.