The Long Road to Professionalism

you have to start somewhere.

That's essentially what the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) with the support of its enlightened sponsors, Supreme Ventures, is saying as it begins the long road towards "professionalising" Jamaica's club and parish cricket.

The road begins today with clubs and parishes being given the wherewithal to provide "small stipends" to players and coaches for the 2006 Supreme Ventures Super Cup. The expectation is that by 2008 in the wake of what it is hoped will be a successful first-ever hosting of cricket's World Cup by the West Indies, the JCA will be in a position to implement a "fully operational semi-professional league".

The stipends to be paid out to players and coaches over the next couple of months will hardly meet their needs. But for the first time in the history of Jamaica's domestic cricket, players will know that their transportation costs are covered and that they may even be able to buy a round, come Sunday evening.

For those faithful servants of cricket, the club and parish administrators, who year after year dip into their pockets to provide bus fares for players and cover all sorts of expenses that players incur, this must be a huge relief.

It's crucial though that all concerned - not least the players - understand that even as the stipend, small though it is, represents a huge change in their circumstances the quality of their play and their approach to cricket must also show quantum improvement.

One hand can't wash. For years, players with the sympathy of cricket watchers, have complained about the difficulty of fulfilling their potential in the very amateur arrangement that has always existed.

The players who take the field - starting today - in the island's top competition, the Supreme Ventures Super Cup owe it not just to themselves but to their colleagues in the lower leagues, to the hardy cricket-loving spectators who seem to get fewer and fewer each year and to the entire cricket fraternity, to give 100 per cent effort.

If they do, they will provide pleasure and entertainment - which is what will attract spectators, television audiences and the money of sponsors and investors. That, ultimately, is what it will take to achieve full professionalism in Jamaica's cricket for the greater good of West Indies cricket.

* In association with the Jamaica Observer.