Going Pro is The Only Answer

Jamaica's abysmal performance in this year's shortened Carib Beer tournament has quite naturally sparked plenty of talk.

How could a team that did so well last year deteriorate so quickly? That's a question people keep asking. For what it's worth, we don't need long memories to recall that only last season the same thing happened to Barbados.

To my mind it reflects the lack of consistency and an inadequacy in natural growth that plagues West Indies cricket. Too many of our players are failing to "step up" and show a high level of performance consistently, having impressed at age-group level.

Indeed, it has long been my contention that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with our age-group cricket. I often hear talk that we need to improve schools' cricket. Of course we should always be striving to improve. But the results against international opposition seem to consistently show that the West Indies at Under-19 level are right up there with the best.

It's after that stage that we seem to have a big problem.

So we have a situation for example where very few of an impressive bunch of players that formed a successful West Indies Under-19 tour of England in 2001 have actually "come through" as expected, and none is performing at a consistently high level.

Perhaps the foremost example of underachievement from that group is Jamaica's Brenton Parchment who was the captain. If anything, Parchment the batsman has regressed.

We need to ask ourselves what it is that the developed cricket countries are doing for their cricketers after school age that we are not. The short answer is professionalism in every sense. Not just at the level where players are compensated and held accountable for their performance but also at the level of coaches, support services and club administration.

It's the absence of professionalism that forces our players to go to Britain and North America for long stretches each season to "earn a bread" in sub-standard leagues, some of which are no better than "beer-belly" cricket. But they have to earn a living.

That's why the Jamaica Cricket Association's (JCA) plan to begin paying a basic stipend to club players and to provide an allocation for coaches, starting with the Supreme Ventures Super Cup this year, must be lauded. It's just a small start but the plan is for it to pick up momentum, especially after the expected proceeds from next year's World Cup chip in.

Credit is due to the Trinidadians, who have had a semi-pro league on track for some time. We need to learn from them.

And, as we have learnt from football, once there is a serious move towards professionalism, improved facilities - not least better playing surfaces - follow. The progression is as natural as daylight after dark.

* In association with Jamaica Observer.