Cricket Crossroads

Sep 26, 2010 Editorial

Well, Dem Boys, certainly had a field day with the T-20 team that represented us in the Champions League T-20 Competition. Amazon Conkee? It was not that Dem Boys were mean, but in our view, merely reflected the disappointment of the average fan, after all the hype by the powers that be.
“Amazon Conquerors” was always going to a stiff moniker for a very young and inexperienced team to live up to. Thankfully, the commentators in South Africa did not pay any heed to the extravagant billing and resorted to merely calling them “Guyana”.
We received the publicity we craved without having to carry the burden of having conquered the Amazon. We were always a bit intrigued about the choice of name. After all, it is not just nitpicking to point out that if the rationale was to promote our forest-based eco-tourism potential, then to claim that we are part of the Amazonian jungle is a misrepresentation that will not reap us any benefit.
Our forest is a part of the most ancient Guyana Shield and our rivers drain into the Atlantic and not the Amazon. The Amazon has its own established marketing that directs the traffic to Brazil and our Atlantic accessibility should attract its own aficionados.
Be as it may – back to the cricket, such as it was. Our correspondent yesterday presented a quite comprehensive report and we will simply reiterate what we believe to the most salient points that have to do with the future of our cricket.
Once again we have to emphasise that the people of Guyana have made a tremendous investment in cricket: we have a US$20 million loan from India for the National Stadium to repay – not to mention the sponsorship of the trip to South African. No Guyanese has been churlish enough to question these expenditures: we are a cricketing nation.
With that in mind, we have to ask. “Are we getting our money’s worth?” Some might say that as the team that won the right to represent the West Indies (never mind the sour Trinidadians), we must be doing something right.
Maybe for the West Indies – but if the record of WI cricket over the last few decades is anything to go by, that’s not saying much. West Indies cricket is mediocre and so is ours. There is no other word for it when we compare ourselves to the rest of the cricketing world – both at the national and the “club” level, as was cruelly exposed in South Africa.
Right up front we have to place the cricketing administration under the microscope and very quickly the figure of Chetram Singh comes into view.
Having the same man at the helm of our cricket, even as our fortunes plummeted inexorably downwards since 1991, is inexcusable. What was Mr Singh doing in South Africa?
Previous scandals, including the acid attack on an official, had forced the Minister of Sports to intervene into the activities of the Guyana Cricket Board. Nothing fundamentally has been achieved and we predict that nothing will, until we have a “root and branch” approach to change.
Only a professional Board will insist on professional coaching, professional administration, professional training and eventually professional players. What sort of Board will claim that they were unaware that they needed to arrive earlier in South Africa for our players to become familiar with the drastically different conditions?
What has this Board done to nurture players at the grassroots? Who are the officials on the local boards save mirror images of the national board, with its surfeit of cronyism and corruption.
The Minister of Sports has to reject the arrogant spoutings of Mr Chetram Singh to the effect that governments cannot enforce their decisions on the affairs of what he claims to be are “independent” bodies.
The “issues of mal-administration, nepotism, cronyism, illegalities and financial improprieties” that were identified by sitting executives have sanctioned outside intervention of the boards. Do we go forwards or backwards? We are at the crossroads.

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