Lavish praise for Cricket Board

"As such those who reach to the summit of the game are the ones who work hard, remain focussed and find simple ways to do the difficult things which challenge many of us."

This insight was given by Wayne Riley, Project Co-ordinator of Trinidad and Tobago Sports Company.Riley, was representing Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Roger Boynes at the graduation ceremony of the third batch of inductees of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, (TTCB) on Friday night at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre, Balmain, Couva.

The 17 inductees were Manoj Sirju, Jason Mohammed, Rishi Bachan, Anderson Bryce, Darrol Marchan, Kerwin Mohammed, Kervon Christmas, Shastri Samaroo, Petrock Nicholas, Magnum Nanan, Kareem Mohammed, Dion Bennett, Keegan Roy, Mario Belcon, Rishaad Harris, Justin Guillen, and Kieron Pollard.

The "Inductee of the Year" was Kieron Pollard and he received an award from the Cricket Board’s Chief Executive Officer Alloy Lequay.

"To develop a cricketer’s mind requires a high level of discipline. It demands that you treat your body well, so exercise and practise of the basics is not an option but a compulsion and to drive your body where no one has driven it before has to be your goal," Riley said.

"Hence in your pursuit for further development and stardom you would have learned that eating the right foods and drinking adequate water while steering clear of drugs whether legal or illegal is mandatory necessity which you cannot ignore," he said.

He praised the Cricket Board for recognising the need "to develop this unique mind and shifted the paradigm in order to effect this development." Riley pointed out that a training programme "which deals with cricket on and off the field is a shift within the paradigm."

"It takes divergent progressive minds to develop a cricket training programme that includes dance, nutrition, computer literacy, media adaptability and other apparently disconnected modules for young men interested in cricket," Riley said.

"But what the Board apparently seemed obsessed in preparing is a cadre of young professionals of which any, if called upon, will be equipped enough to lead his peers in the glorious game of uncertainty, this game we call cricket," he said. He said that the Cricket Board was on the right road as cricket is an emancipator from the throes of poverty for any who work hard and long at it.

"Cricket as a game is a great unifier and those who succeed will be remembered as the ones who altered the negative psyche of West Indian people and gave to us an opportunity to hope," he said.

"So in embarking on a training programme of this magnitude the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre is forging a path to indelibly etch your names and the name of your country into the annals of global history," The Sports Company Project Co-ordinator said.

He stressed that the TTCB was right on track and added that the Brian Lara Cricket Academy now under constructrion is designed to accomplish what the programme intends on a larger scale.

"It will be the most modern and technologically advanced cricket development facility not only in the region but also in the global village. It will be this way not only because there is the political will to ensure that we establish a centre of cricket excellence but also because our past cricketing stars will not have it any other way," he said.

"Beware of the dangers of self-confidence and arrogance because pride always goes before the fall; remain teachable, because he who feels that he cannot be taught cannot learn and dies," Riley said.

‘"The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is behind you every step of the way as you continue your journey to stardom," he added.