That proved to be a good thing, because a lot of those coaches, over the years, had been taken for granted. And when you have been taken for granted, you do not really give your best to the work. Some of the coaches, I did not [keep] on, because they had gone past the stage of being able to give anything positive to the program, as they had been there so long and had been treated [poorly]. They were marking time, so I found good, vibrant coaches; the ones who were there, that I felt they were looking for an opportunity to do something good, I kept on. And then, in all the sports, we suddenly had head coaches who [were helping] to recruit players from the university into the different teams.

We built up the cricket facility that we had. When I arrived, we had an indoor net, we had two outdoor nets, but we had a very small pavilion. And over the years, we were able to get a brand-new two-story pavilion, upgraded grounds and seating. We expanded the indoor school, in terms of modernizing it, etc. Then, fortunately for us, Prime Minister, Owen Arthur—who was not just a great Prime Minister, but a great servant of the university—vested 33 acres of land to the university, just down the hill from Cave Hill Campus—which was all bush. Then I cajoled our principal, Sir Hilary Beckles, to develop a Sports Complex down there. So, we put in; first, a football field—an artificial football field—and then, a running track—the Usain Bolt Running Track. And then we put in floodlights etc. Suddenly, the whole profile of the university sports was being lifted.

I also had to-- If you are having these facilities, and you are having these players, it is important to have something better for them to do. I had to convince the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) to put the university into their top division. Which was something that was met with great reluctance. It took two years, but after two years, they agreed. But they did not give us much time to put a team together, they actually gave us two weeks to put a team together to play. I then had to run around the university and the players that I knew, I got them involved. We did very well that first year. From then onwards, really, recruiting became very easy because we had players out of the secondary schools come into the university coming to study.

We then introduced sports scholarships, which meant now that I had to look around the Region for talented sportspersons; for sportsmen and women. We [participated in] fifteen sports, so I looked around the region for quality footballers, quality cricketers, hockey players, basketball players, netball players, etc. That gave us a new lease of life because we were getting people coming into the university from Trinidad & Tobago, from Jamaica, from Antigua, from St. Vincent and St. Lucia, who were bright people, but also very good at sports. Which made the teams even stronger. Over the years, we were able to increase the number of scholarships. To this day, from about 2006/7, the university team, which is called the UWI Blackbirds, has dominated every sport in Barbados.

From that period, we then had to look regionally, because the Cave Hill Campus is only part of UWI. We also have Mona and we have St. Augustine. We then had to convince Cricket West Indies that throughout the three campuses, and the open campuses, we had enough quality players that we could assemble a Combined Campuses and Colleges team, that would become competitive. And after a while, they agreed. We had to hastily put together a team.

The first person that I got involved was Horton Dolphin from Jamaica. I felt that I needed someone who had been around the Caribbean and been around cricket in the Caribbean, at the university level, for a long time, who had done a very good job. I needed somebody like that who could get a hold of these young men and manage them. So, I found out that they had this guy in Jamaica called Horton Dolphin, who had been at Mona for many years. He was the Director of Sports. I called him up one day and he happened to be in the supermarket shopping with his wife. I said “Mister Dolphin”, I told him who I was and that I was putting together the Combined Campuses and Colleges and I would want him to manage the team and he was absolutely delighted. He took over as the manager of the team for many, many years and did a fantastic job. And as you know, out of that program many players have gone on to represent the West Indies, Barbados, Jamaica and Windward.

We've done the same thing in the other sports, as well. Out of that, there are many nationals who are playing for their national teams through this program. So, it really has been a rewarding time. I was there fifteen years—I retired last year—and within those fifteen years, I saw where we came from. Because in 2004, as a sporting entity, we were nothing and to be a strong entity right now… We were always at a bit of a disadvantage here in Barbados, because the likes of Mona and St. Augustine, which are much bigger campuses—Mona especially, gives away something like a hundred scholarships a year—so we were never anywhere in that region. We had to fight with much lower numbers, but they [Mona and St. Augustine] have done great jobs as well. Giving those young men and women the opportunity to play sports and to be very academic as well.” 

Up Next: The final article in the series, Where it went and continues to go wrong for West Indies cricket.