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Can a resident Bajan tell me about Jacob Bethell's cricket while he was in Barbados?

According to cricinfo:

His father was a promising school by cricket,
and much was expected of him....but....

I actually lost contact, as i left Barbados in the 80's and stop following their league cricket.

His father's name is Graham Bethell.

I remember him playing in the Combined School team in Barbados top division, the then First division.

In reply to nick2020

He was very promising. Hence the offer of a scholarship to move to England. Ate, breathed and drank cricket. I think he played with the Franklin Stephenson Academy.

In reply to TanteMerle

His grand father played and captained Barbados.

By the way I am not a resident Bajan, but since Barbados is a colony of Culpepper Island. I felt at liberty to reply.

In reply to culpepperboy

Much appreciated.

Sad to see talent exported given our state of cricket. But maybe our state is because we are not doing a good job developing our youth. May go to show how good the Poorans and Hopes of this world are to be able to rise and overcome.

He played under 11, under 13 and for the Franklyn Stephenson academy but he was never going to represent Barbados let alone west indies anybody who thought otherwise is a fool, it takes more than being born in Barbados to be a Bajan and a Bajan he is not, him and all others born here but chose England
He and them should be treated like any other England player

In reply to culpepperboy

In reply to culpepperboy

Pickwick had several good cricketers, and Arthur Bethell and Tony White are two I remember.
His parent put him into the Franklyn Stephenson Academy. I have written about him and several others as they toured South Africa and England with the Academy.

Franklyn usually has two teams during the U13 tournament, He once accused the coaches in Bim of teaching from a book.

In reply to nick2020

In reply to hawk

Please explain what you mean by this or why you think that is the case:

In reply to Walco

What he is saying is that any Bajan not making a living in Barbados is not Bajan.

In reply to hawk

I agree with you.

I knew Roy Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, and Colin Powell were Bajans.
I even named my daughter Shirley because of her.
No one in the last three years of Carnival had a bigger Barbadian flag than my daughter.
She was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and tells people she is more Bajan than I.

In reply to hawk

Jacob Bethel was on Bim's 2018 U15 Championship winning team. He opened he batting for Barbados.

https://x.com/windiescricket/status/982529449362120705

We even talked about it back then.

https://caribbeancricket.com/archivedtopic/1146827

In reply to seaegg99

Thanks for the correction to the posters, he was the 3rd best player on the 2018 after Nimar Bolden and Che Simmonds.

In reply to openning

That would explain the second part of what I asked about, but not this part:

In reply to openning

Colin Powell was a Bajan???

In reply to Walco

i think he meant Eric Holder (if anyone else) and not Powell

In reply to Walco

He meant to say Eric Holder ,your CU bro..Many say Riri is yardiie.

In reply to Walco

Thanks for correcting me, Powell's roots are in Jamaica, Eric Holder's are in St. Joseph.
Heard him several times speaking of the summers he spent there.

In reply to sudden

Man every time I see Bethell I remember the fear that boy's father used to put in the hearts of U15 schoolboy bowlers playing against HC in the late 1970s

In reply to openning

In reply to tc1

Riri embraces Yardi-ism

In reply to Walco

Bethel and Armstrong

They dropped 200 odd on us on that small field at HC

In reply to sudden

Was that a 2s and 4s field? That 200 runs opening partnership had to be demoralizing. We celebrated the dismissals of Bethel and Armstrong like opposing teams celebrated the dismissal of Chris Gayle when playing West Indies.

In reply to Walco

I saw Bethel at Kensington for the recent ODI against Eng

Reminded him of it and the man seh he shared so much licks he couldn’t remember

Thank God cos it was embarrassing

In reply to sudden

So you played second division cricket?
I never knew there was a cricket field back there until I played for Yorkshire 2nd division against HC in 1969; it was one of my last matches before immigrating to Canada.
I had fun bowling my leggies. I was a Jack of all trades but was not good at any.
I was an open batsman, wicketkeeper, bowled offbreaks and wrist a spinner. I once took five catches in an inning against The Bay Primary at Friendship.

In reply to sudden

In reply to sudden

Were you at the coaching clinic in Bim taught by Sobers, Hall and Gibbs during the Packer tour of the West Indies?

In reply to openning

He played marble cricket with Powen

In reply to openning

Absolutely that is not what I am saying, nationality is a choice and they chose England, that makes them English.
Salt was born in Wales, even though he grew up here in Barbados he chose to be English
Remember Andrew Symonds he had an option to and he said boldly he was a fair dinkum Aussie

In reply to Walco

No, I don’t think so

In reply to culpepperboy

In those days HC had some v good players but Armstrong and Bethel were deadly

In reply to Walco

Man I played in an old boys v school boys match for Cawmere week

Sam Wilkinson and a white fella called Burke put some licks in us

Those old boys took the thing seriously

In reply to hawk

There is a difference between Bethell and Salt. Bethell was born in Barbados, which makes him Barbadian; he does not have to apply for citizenship.
Salt is a foreigner.

Barbados citizenship laws

In reply to openning

I played there too. Weren't there two cricket fields adjacent to each other, with the in the direction of the old Globe theatre? In fact three, if you counted the Spartan CC field at Queens Park.

In reply to Casper

Before I left Bim five decades ago, there were the Park and HC 2 grounds, there was no other ground at the time.
The Transport Board occupied the area close to the Globe.

In reply to openning

You are missing the point, nothing to do with laws or applying for citizenship. it is conscious decision on which country you chose to represent,
In other words while they are bajans by birth they are English by choice
And choice trumps birth

In reply to hawk

I look at cricketers the same way I look at other immigrants moving overseas to live. and work
I am Barbadian/Canadian, a citizen of both.
With Jofra and others moving to England, it allows others to represent Barbados and the West Indies.
I am proud and support players from the region with options.
I am proud of my fellow West Indians doing well, whoever they play for, and I am also proud when the West Indies win.
I will be a hypocrite living away from Bim and hating someone playing for another country.

In reply to sudden

In reply to Walco

In reply to Walco

77-79 but you know i cant remember playing against Lodge, not that i played every match, but i must have

couldnt have been that memorable

remember playing against a Burrows fast bowler at some point

played with Pitt, Cox, Chapman, Eversley

In reply to Castled

Why are you laughing...?

Sodden played as the heavy roller with that girth...

In reply to sudden

Funny enough, I don't remember playing against Cawmere either. In fact, the only matches I remember were against CP and HC. CP was my first match. Burrows was a few years older than me. The only person I played with that you might know is Mike Inniss who played U19 and senior cricket for Barbados. He actually played U19 for Barbados with Graham Bethel.

In reply to hawk

Your discussion should include Stephen Farmer. An English newspaper accused Barbados and West Indies of discriminating against him because he was white.

Farmer was a top drawer allrounder.

It looked like he dropped out of high-level cricket prematurely. Did his situation inform the Bethell situation?

In reply to Castled

Why are White Players not participating in the BCA or CWI competitions?

In reply to openning

In reply to seaegg99

Interesting. A few years ago, I listened to the Mason and Guess program. They interviewed two 13-year-olds; one was Bethel, and the other, whose name I can't remember. Both were judged to have exceptional batting talent, with the other (not Bethel) being proposed as the better of the two. Do you know who the other is and what has happened to him?

In reply to tc1

Arthur Bethel- His Grandfather was my boss...died a few years ago.

Gem of a Man...Little Jacob looks more like him than his own dad in my opinion.


Arthur represented BIM and West Indies.

Jacob is a talented Bajan who sadly is playing for England and not us....

I wish I had the words to describe the similarities between being spotted in the BCL and poached to play in the BCA instead as it was more prestigious etc...but who wants to go there among us?

In reply to PM

It was Nimar Bolden, he played a couple games for CCC. He also had a few games with the Academy team. I mentioned him a reply to Seaegg.

In reply to powen001

you could really shut yuh short me crotch mout

wuh you kno bout playing cricket

your ole man yes, olly perhaps; at least he used to walk around wid a bat

all you kno is rounders and skipping

In reply to openning

I support Barbados and west indies cricket and cricketers ONLY. You play for any other team regardless of where you were born you cannot have my support
Now if you play for a another country in a sport we don't play then you have my support for example Bajan ice hockey players in Canada Fred Brathwaite and Anson Carter
They would never play against Barbados

In reply to Castled

I don't know much about the farmer situation, I also don't know if he discriminated against, I don't know if it had an influence on Bethel
However I just don't believe in my heart that white Bajan cricketers, the few we have now are interested in representing Barbados or the west indies hence Bethel was never going to play for us at the first class or test level
He is the best white cricketer in decades,

In reply to hawk

Kawk, the thread has gone past the mumbo-jumbo immigration criteria.

Geoffrey Greenidge, white guy, played for Barbados and West Indies

The original West Indian Greenidge opening bat

Stephen Farmer was a good cricketer. Don’t recall him being in contention for a WI place

In reply to TheTrail

immigration??? You missed it as well

In reply to imusic

I think he was the last white Bajan to play for Barbados and the west indies and that was in the 1960s pre independence some including Farmer played for Barbados but not the west indies, post independence only bethel emerged as a genuine test contender.

In reply to tc1

At Dash Valley: Wildey 243-8 (63 overs) (Nimar Bolden 95 – 149 balls, 6 fours; Shanaldo Taylor 49, Demetrius Richards 45, Carlos Maynard 25; Zephan Brown 3-37, Jair McAllister 2-37, Ian Boyce 2-63) vs Wanderers.
Toss: Wanderers..

In reply to hawk

Mah……it wasn’t the 60’s. Later than that.

In reply to imusic

Yes the early 70s some 50 years ago