'No Riding and Whistling'

Professor Hilary Beckles, known as the University of the West Indies' (UWI) "cricket person", is still spitting fire.

This after learning of the West Indies Cricket Board's (WICB) decision to axe the combined UWI team from the 2004 regional one day tournament set to bowl off on October 16. Beckles told CaribbeanCricket.com that "the university was shocked and horrified by the decision of the WICB. We were surprised...taken off guard, as we had been developing a dialogue with the Board on the need to cater for the education of young cricketers, and forging the bond between cricket and education."

There's an expression that seems very apt here, and may very well express the views of many around the region. "When you are 'bitten' by your own dog you are well 'bitten'." Making the bite even worse was that Beckles, as well as students and administrators of the institution's cricket programme heard about the decision in the media and on the streets.

Said Beckles: "We were not offered the expected courtesy by the WICB of being informed that the matter was up for discussion, neither was our views sought with respect to possible strategies for strengthening our team in an orderly fashion." Perhaps no one told Professor Beckles that, with the WICB, one must not have expectations.

The decision is made all the more difficult to comprehend by the university, since it was apparently a UWI graduate from the Barbados Cricket Association -- David Holford -- who wrote a paper for the Board with the recommendation to remove the UWI team. For UWI and Professor Beckles, this is like being served with divorce papers without you knowing that the marriage was in trouble!

There are other considerations from the University's perspective. According to Professor Beckles "we had made an enormous financial investment in the game in order to demonstrate our seriousness as a university within the cricket fraternity." The redevelopment of the ground at the Cave Hill, named the 3Ws Oval, and the creation a Hall of Fame for West Indian cricketers is testimony to that.

In addition, the university was in the process of offering scholarships to young cricketers in the way that Americans do in a big way with other sports. "We now feel that our best efforts have been subverted," said the UWI Cave Hill Principal.

How do some of those young cricketers who are currently students at the Mona campus feel?

Maurice Clarke has been the captain of the cricket team at UWI Mona campus in Jamaica for the past three years. "They've chosen not to take the wiser course of action. I think this kind of gives you a look in as to why the structure of West Indies cricket is the way it is, in my opinion," said Clarke.

Clarke entered the university in 1999 on a Capital & Credit Merchant Bank three-year scholarship which required the recipient to have played youth cricket for Jamaica. He expects to graduate at the end of the 2004/5 academic year with a BSc in International Relations and Politics and is now involved in Jamaica's 30-man squad to select players for the national one day team.

I therefore asked him, given this opportunity, why would he lament the WICB decision if he may be able to continue his cricket career with the national team. He said "I was also invited to the trials to select the 2004 Carib Beer team. That came right around my exam time. There were no considerations for my exams. If there had been, I would have become a full time member of the trial squad but I was unable to do that so I had to pull out."

He explains however, that being part of the UWI team, accommodation is made for such occurrences. Said the UWI Mona captain "when playing for UWI, if you have a problem with a training camp or your final exams clash with cricket, they ask you to point that out to them, and they write letters to your lecturers or to your Dean and then concessions would be made, to either have a late exam or to do a paper instead of an exam, depending on what the lecturer saw fit in relation to the course requirements. So you had an option of having an alternative."

Another disappointed student is Simon Jackson, captain of Jamaica's U-19 team last year. Jackson, who learnt of the decision on this website, said "that was one of the main purposes of coming to UWI". Jackson felt that being a part of the UWI team would have allowed him to get more exposure at the regional level while pursuing his BSc in Banking and Finance on the Franz Botek cricket scholarship. "That has closed an avenue for exposure to regional cricket at this young age," said Jackson, who had already begun to prepare himself for the trial matches that UWI Mona had planned.

Chadwick Walton, Jackson's team mate from youth cricket, echoes the same sentiments. The 19 year old wicket-keeper, who has four years youth cricket under his belt and is currently involved in national team trials said "actually, that was one of the main reasons why I applied to UWI, I really wanted to play. When you have two options it's better than one." The wicketkeeper/batsman, who scored two centuries in the domestic two-day competition for Lucas this year, felt that the university team was not given a long enough run to prove their worth. "You can't just judge them based on two seasons. This year I think that they would really give some of the teams some competition. There are a lot of new players coming in, so it would really have been competitive" said the Management Accounting part-time student.

There is a view by some that the team's preparation was very 'hodge podge", thus leading to the kinds of uncompetitive scores seen in the 2002 and 2003 tournament. Clarke responded by saying "last year UWI Mona was very organized. Grace Jackson-Small, the Director of Sports, employed Robert Samuels as coach and he started a really nice programme where he fitted in to the time table of the individuals who wanted to be serious, and he had one-on-ones or a small group, then had Thursday as a main training day."

As a result the UWI Mona team did well in the inter collegiate games which involves other Jamaican tertiary institutions such as GC Foster College of Sports & Physical Education and University of Technology (UTECH).

According to Clarke, this year "plans were in place from the end of August to go to Barbados to continue what we started - the equivalent of a tri-nation series. We wanted to do it with the 3 campuses ? Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica ? with a view to selecting a squad of 30, and then we would have been in training weeks ago."

But Beckles doesn't see the regional combined university team's poor showing as a reason for dumping them from the one day tournament. "We were not there to win; we were there to offer young cricketers a chance to pursue their cricket dreams and at the same time get a higher education. We wished to honour the legacy of Frank Worrell who served both institutions." Worrell, the great West Indian captain studied Sociology at UWI in preparation for life after cricket.

The West Indies Cricket Board has not seen it fit to explain the reasoning behind this decision, except to say that "the new format would allow the premier regional One-Day tournament to be contested by the strongest teams possible" in a July 10 press release. One cannot be sure therefore of what would have lead them to announce this at a time when the UWI's regional coach Jeffery Dujon was making arrangements to put a squad together and have training sessions in readiness for the 2004 season.

There are two major issues here: (1) the decision to remove the team from the competition after just two seasons and (2) the communication of the decision to the University of the West Indies.

On the first point, one could argue that the UWI team, which in the past has been made up of students from the tertiary institutions scattered throughout the region, performed no worse than the combined islands teams. The UWI team perhaps has a greater advantage over the Leeward or Windward Islands team where financing is concerned.

More and more young cricketers are recognizing just like Sir Frank Worrell did, that there is life after cricket and have prepared accordingly by attaining qualifications which will gain them entry to a tertiary institution. It stands to reason therefore that whereas in the past, you may have had cricketers with average skill attending tertiary institutions, now you have many good players being able to enter a university.

Liam Sebastien, the Windward Islands youth all rounder, is a good example of this. He has represented Young West Indies at an international tournament, and is planning on entering college after taking the 'A' Level exams in his native Dominica. What encouragement is there for him now to pursue tertiary education? At least with UWI in the regional tournament, he would have been virtually assured of continuing his cricket at the higher level.

On the second issue, one can only say 'the WICB strikes again'. The Board has been at fault on numerous occasions for not employing communication strategies which feature in properly run organizations. The Bennett King fiasco comes to mind here. After learning of the decision "on the streets", Beckles said the WICB President, himself a UWI graduate, confirmed it a week later. Doesn't the WICB know that timing is everything? Doesn't the WICB know that dialogue is important? That creating partnerships, such as the one that was being forged with UWI, is one way in which it can capitalize on the skills set and knowledge base that abound in this region?

Jeffrey Dujon, in writing about this " patently absurd decision," asked this question. "What message does it send to the young cricketer leaving school with the academic qualifications to enter a tertiary institution that facilitates his cricket but does not provide the level of competition that will fully develop his capability?"

Said Maurice Clarke, "it sends a very simple message to them. You need to make a choice because there is no riding and whistling here. It's either you end school and deal with the cricket now, or deal with school and don't try and have too many expectations of the cricket. That's what they [WICB] are telling people."

Adds Clarke: "A lot of people who are involved in cricket in the region are a little bit what I would call 'tradition-compassionate'. They are still embedded in the olden days where if you haven't played cricket for the West Indies, then you cannot have anything to contribute to the cricket of the West Indies and I don't think they should maintain that kind of stance where cricket is concerned."

Professor Beckles, writing in the Barbados Nation in April this year said "I know that there are many within the West Indian cricket fraternity that care very little for the UWI, and do not wish to see it anywhere near their business." Was he unknowingly looking into a crystal ball?

Indeed, it is perhaps institutions such as UWI that are outside of the inner workings of West Indies cricket who could contribute the most. But if you continue to exclude them from the decision making processes and neglect to have dialogue with them, chances are that they will go and forge bonds with, and contribute to, the development of organizations and institutions that recognize their worth.