Fluctuating year for cricket

THE YEAR 2005 in cricket was much like the years before and it is hoped that a quick transition is made in local and regional cricket ahead of the staging of the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean next year. More off-the-field incidents dominated the year, starting with a resumption of the lingering contract dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the Players’ Association. The WICB got a new leader in Ken Gordon while the regional players had their fight taken up by the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), and their president Dinanath Ramnarine. The ongoing dispute saw the team leading cricketers including Brian Lara being left out of the West Indies team which visited Sri Lanka earlier in the year. Lara, a triple world record holder for batting was among seven of the team’s top players who were dropped after they failed to sign a tour contract protesting the terms and conditions.

The result was the selection of an entirely new team without key players Lara, Jamaica’s Chris Gayle, Guyana’s Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Pedro Collins, Corey Colleymore and Fidel Edwards, who did perform to their best, but could not stop the inevitable defeat. However an agreement was made between the WICB and the players which allowed for the best West Indies team to tour Australia later in the year. However before the WI team could have gone to Australia, Lara faced a miserable time with the bat as he failed to get among the main runs playing for a World XI team against Australia in the Super Series. His struggles took him into the tour of the West Indies, to the land down under, where officials, more than the bowlers and fielders, prevented him from getting among the big scores. However in the last Test match Lara dug deep and scored the targeted 10,000-plus runs which ensured him the leading scorer in cricket ever. Most importantly and probably painfully, he had gone past Allan Border in front his home fans.     

Trinidad and Tobago’s captain Daren Ganga had also faced the punishment for openly showing his support for the regional players in the dispute. After a reasonably good display during the West Indies’ “A” team tour of Sri Lanka, Ganga was still left out of the team for Australia —  a result that caused concerns for officials of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board of Control, including former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alloy Lequay. In spite of this the Trinidad and Tobago’s cricket team gave a credible performance that earned them the third place finish at the four-day Caribbean Series between January and April. This achievement was not only translated, but bettered at the Under-15 level, when the Trinidad and Tobago youths claimed the CLICO West Indies Regional Under-15 tournament with a series of extremely impressive performances with both the bat and the ball. Captain Kjorn Ottley, a Queen’s Royal College student helped spearhead the TT lads under coach Dasrath Maharaj. Ottley stole the Best Bowler award with a series of impressive spells but it was Presentation College Adrian Barath who was voted the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

The country’s Under-19 cricketers also earned themselves the silverware when they dominated their regional counterparts. Captain Jason Mohammed led with the bat but he had the support of a number of talented players including off-spinner Sunil Narine, William Perkins and Rishi Bachan earning them their second victory in the Under-19 championship in St Lucia in August. And for their exploits, Mohammed and four other members of the Trinidad and Tobago team secured themselves a place on the West Indies team for the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka this year. The other players are Perkins, Bachan, Narine and Keiron Pollard. Another major turnaround in local cricket was the election of a new board, known as the “Friends of Cricket.” The “Friends of Cricket” led by former West Indies and national wicketkeeper Deryck Murray was elected to take over the helm. Their victory at the polls by a slim 6-5 margin at the October 29 election at the National Cricket Centre at Balmain Couva, brought an end to the Alloy Lequay-led administration which prevailed for several decades.

Murray in his victory speech said he hoped that all would work together in the interest of local cricket. On the agenda was a massive plan to take the sport as far east as Toco and west as Carenage, as well as help develop the sport in the sister isle of Tobago. Allen Sammy, the chairman of the National Cricket League said also that his board have made arrangements for a team from the sister isle to play in the Carib Sunday League as of this year, as well as increase the amount of cricket played for the year in a move to enhance the standard of cricket in the country and the region. A late impasse between the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Umpires and Scorers Council and a break away group calling themselves Association of Cricket Umpires of Trinidad and Tobago (ACUTT) have also been carried into this year’s staging of the domestic cricket leagues.

Harry Mahabal, the interim chairman of the rebel group said that they were formed out of the concern of more than 70 percent of the local umpires, and wanted to be recognised ahead of the current administration. However, secretary of the board Forbes Persad has said the group could not be recognised as the board still had a commitment to the TTCUSC which have been in charge for the past 49 years. In an immediate response the board appointed mediator Ronnie Ramcharan to find a resolution to the problems facing both parties. Ramcharan has since held varying meetings with both parties and has agreed to meet with the two parties to thrash out the issues troubling the start of domestic cricket 2006.