The sport of cricket is too distant a cousin to football in these islands.
There is a need for narrowing the gap in terms of parity between the two games. I want to suggest we cricket administrators desist from despairing and fight back. The task ahead is monumental. We have to overcome the culture and tradition of football in these islands. We have to surmount the continuous participatory nature of football as oppose to the sometimes sedentary nature and dare I say boring aspect of cricket. Not an easy task with this ‘instant’ generation. The ease with which a football game can be arranged and played when compared with that of a cricket game does not slant the comparison in favour of cricket either.The scarcity of available cricketing infrastructure is also hampering its development.In order to narrow the chasm this writer is prepared to offer a few suggestions.
(1) Starting in the primary schools, organizers must create fixtures allowing for more interschool competition. In any given season a primary school team could play as few as three matches and a maximum of five.
Football is afforded the luxury of at least ten matches not to mention the before and after rally.
(2) Choose the no-footballers and or the low footballers to teach cricket. Avoid competing with footballers for personnel you will lose.
(3) Use the super sub type system to encourage participation of as many
players as possible. I had suggested this two years ago and it was snubbed on the pretext that it would be disadvantageous to the small schools, yet the situation obtains in football.
(4) I do not know how this can be achieved. I am not even sure if it can be
achieved. I am driven purely on desire but some way some how some thing should be instituted to harness at least 25% of the 100 players leaving the primary schools each year These proposals will never level the playing field its not my intention but they should bring a few more converts in to the cricketing fold.
On a similar topic but a different theme could some cosideration be given to slightly altering the playing conditions at Smith Road. Usually play stops for the passage of planes and time is also lost when a ball crosses the highway, still the ‘cut off time’ remains the same. Maybe some allowance could be given these with regards to these circumstances. Finally does the wicket at Smith Road have to be so unpredictable? I may be a novice to preparing wickets (I was only involved in wicket preparation for 30 years) but it is my contention that there is usually too much moisture in the track at the start of play.
Additionally the Sunday wicket should be a second day wicket with only the foot holes being patched. Any wetting should only be a sprinkle.
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