The best from sports day are chosen to represent their school in regional meets, Eastern, Central and Western Championships. The culmination of all this is the Boys and Girls Athletic Championships, or simply – Champs.
Champs is like a mini-Olympics. It is held at the National Stadium in Kingston over five days and all high schools are welcome to participate. Huge crowds from all over the island turn up. My brother-in-law, Winston, is a Kingston College (KC) old boy. He often travels to Jamaica from the US just for Champs, as do many others. The competition is fierce, and the best from Champs are often offered scholarships to colleges in the United States. Some join the growing number of elite coaching camps in Jamaica, such as Glen Mills’ Racers Track Club, one-time home of Usain Bolt, the greatest male sprinter ever, and Stephen Francis’ MVP Track Club, where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, perhaps the greatest female sprinter of all time, once trained.
The point I’m making is that the large pool of participation and support leads to a product that ranks with any in the world. Jamaica is not a country of hefty resources, but if you are talented in track and field, chances are you will be discovered and offered the kind of nurturing and assistance that could make you a standout.
Cricket no longer has that kind of ecosystem. Track and field comes to you wherever you are. On the other hand you have to actively seek cricket out and even then you might not find it. The once-large pool has dwindled, and the game is apparently no longer as attractive an option as any of its competitors vying for the hearts and minds of the Caribbean people. Somewhere in Guyana or Jamaica or Antigua or St. Kitts or St. Lucia or any of the West Indian territories, might well be a Brian Lara, a Deandra Dottin, a Viv Richards, a Malcolm Marshall, a Hayley Matthews, a Courtney Walsh or a Lance Gibbs lurking. But how will we know if they never get to hold a bat or bowl a ball? There might very well be potential Stafanie Taylors, Michael Holdings and Lawrence Rowes around, but if they are like my kids and nieces and nephews, they’re probably inside playing video games and not outside playing cricket.
https://garfieldrobinson1.substack.com/p/when-cricket-left-the-village