Cayman’s professional cricket hopefuls will have a better idea of what their options are by the end of this week.
That’s because technical director Theo Cuffy and the cricket association’s executive member Ivan Burges are off to St Croix to meet Sir Allen Stanford.
Burges will accompany Cuffy Photo: Ron Shillingford |
Stanford is the financial backer of the pro teams for his annual Stanford 20/20 tournament which Trinidad and Tobago won in February, beating Jamaica with consummate ease.
Cayman Islands opened the tournament in Antigua in January, losing to St Lucia who lost to the Trinis in the next round.
There were four pro teams at the Stanford tournament – St Lucia, Anguilla, Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda. Of the 20 teams that competed this time round, there is scope for 12 of them, including Cayman, to turn pro.
Many Cayman players who went to Antigua hope to turn pro, including Ainsley Hall, Alistair Ifill and the Bazil twins, Kevon and Kevin.
Only the big four of Jamaica, T&T, Barbados and Guyana can afford to wait because their players are generally full-time pros already.
‘We don’t know anything but I guess he has included us in his funding,’ Cuffy said. ‘And he has invited us for a meeting there.’
They will meet tomorrow and return on Wednesday with a clearer idea of what is going to develop in the next few months.
‘I am hoping that we can know where we are with the pro team,’ added Cuffy. ‘And I hope that the funding will be this time be disbursed in a more appropriate manner, and we’ll also know what is the Stanford initiative.
‘We never anticipated only one Stanford game a year in the tournament is going to bring back West Indies cricket to where it was. One tournament and in some cases, like us, teams are playing only one game if they lose in the first round. That can’t be the Stanford initiative.
‘That’s one of the questions we want to ask from the Cayman Islands. What’s the real plan? What you intend to achieve five years from now? Basically, if we can get some answers to that we’re on the right track. The rest of the West Indies also wants to know what’s the real plan?
‘What use can you put the legends to? The legends visited me for two days out of 365. What purpose does that serve?’
Cuffy has been watching the second Test between the West Indies and Sri Lanka intensely. It’s being played in Port of Spain, Trinidad and he is disappointed that there is still a resistance to deploying spinners and relying heavily on fast bowlers.
‘I find it disappointing that we can find it at this point in our cricketing career that we still can’t find a young man whose bowling spin to play at Test level.
‘Our ideas always seem to fall on fast bowlers. I don’t mind three or four fast bowlers if they’re good enough but they got opportunities to develop. Our spinners are not being given any opportunities whatsoever.
‘But in our domestic cricket our spinners are on top of the wicket taking figures every single year. They’re always the top three. Right now the bowlers with the most wickets have to be Amit Jaggernauth, Suleiman Benn and Nikita Miller from Jamaica. They are three spinners.’
Cuffy points out that Sri Lanka’s bulk of wickets come from spinners, players who were given the opportunity to develop at Test level. ‘I find it discouraging and distasteful that we pick Benn in Guyana but drop him in Trinidad?
‘We live in an insular world here in West Indies cricket. By right Jaggernauth should have been on this team. Even though he was in the 15 squad, he didn’t make the final cut and you pick Benn for the squad too.
‘Then you go to Trinidad where Jaggernauth is from and you’re afraid now to leave him out and play Benn again. So what you do? You drop Benn also. Jaggernauth just picked up 10 wickets against Barbados last week, so it’s become ridiculous now.
‘That’s the way it is. The guys are always lifted up and then dropped down like a hot potato. Our idea that somebody bowling fast will always get wickets doesn’t always work.’
Hall is a pro hopeful Photo: Stanford
Burges will accompany Cuffy Photo: Ron Shillingford
Related Videos
