Test players told to learn from kids

PRIMARY SCHOOLS taking part in the annual Scotiabank Kiddy’s Cricket competition are all well-disciplined and it is difficult to say which is the best among them.

According to Baldath Mahabir, second vice-president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), perhaps the West Indies Cricket Team could learn something from the youngsters and “stop being unprofessional, ill-disciplined and uncommitted.” At the time Mahabir was addressing the formal launch of the 2004 Scotiabank  Primary School Cricket competition at the Sir Frank Worrell Cricket Development Centre, Balmain, Couva. The novel competition was started four years ago. It was initiated by the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), and supported by Scotiabank of Trinidad and Tobago Limited, in conjunction with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board.

At the recent function, chaired by Dr Michael Seepersad, Cricket Development Officer of the WICB,  presentation of equipment to competing schools was made by Richard Young, managing-director of Scotiabank. Continuing his address, Mahabir said West Indies cricketers had become “fashion models, with designer shades, earrings, and caps more interested in the way they look than the way they play.” He then asked: “Are we as supporters doomed to only look for the silver lining at the end of the gathering of dark clouds after every sound defeat? “We must be careful for while looking at the silver lining the rains may just wash us all away or maybe it will take the collective tears of our people weeping over  another wishy-washy West Indian performance .” He felt that as West Indians “we would return to winning ways  during the World Cup of 2007, which might be another saga  in the making for the region.”

“Perhaps we would host the World Cup the West Indies way!” Mahabir noted. “Let me however, remind those in authority that development in most instances is a slow, deliberate process without glamour or glitz but just hardwork away from publicity,” Mahabir added. “Our primary school teachers, our unheralded heroes, are quite accustomed to doing quality work and I am sure that in their own quiet, efficient manner they will effectively implement the Scotiabank Kiddy’s Cricket programme,” Mahabir said. The top Cricket Board official was looking forward “to a widening and deepening of the Scotia Bank Kiddy’s Cricket Programme in much the same way that Scotiabank is now represented throughout the length and breadth of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Scotiabank’s managing-director Richard Young said they had already distributed over 1,000 cricket kits  to some 1,500 schools in the region  reaching in excess of  7,000 children. Young said that their involvement with the commuunity went beyond cricket “as it has a lot to do with  education and positively shaping young minds.” He referred to the launch last year of the coaching manual, “Clarence Goes to School,” and said that it was being used widely with a variety of subjects on the curriculum. He thanked Dr Seepersad for his assiatance in making the content of the manual something of value in schools.