“Grounds for divorce”

Nov 28, 2010 Sports

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By Colin E. H. Croft

Trinidad & Tobago’s Cricket Board and Queen’s Park Cricket Club had a very daggered exchange last week. T&T’s bid to host the Caribbean T-20 2011 competition, an effort that it lost to Antigua & Barbuda’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (SVRS), and Barbados’ Kensington Oval (K-O), included an item about having to pay rental to use Queen’s Park Oval (QPO).  The cloaked insinuation was that this clause may have lost T&T that bid.
To counter, QPO’s management put out a full-page informational spread, explaining that in Trinidad & Tobago, and the Caribbean, it is one of the very few private cricket clubs left. It further contended that it always has to look after its own interests first then anything else that might come afterwards.  No-one can fight with that.
Overall, the demographics of staging regional and international cricket have changed drastically, probably permanently. Per West Indies Cricket Board, no longer can any Caribbean cricket entity think that it is a foregone conclusion that it would stage regional and international games.  Now, bids must be made to host games!
When I started playing for Guyana, in 1972, and for West Indies, in 1976/77, the four main venues were still Bourda – Georgetown Cricket Club – in Guyana, QPO, K-O, and Sabina Park – Kingston Cricket Club – in Jamaica.
Based on the touring team’s nationality, so were games assigned to respective venues.  QPO sometimes even staged two Tests annually, courtesy of rains, adverse politics, or riots, almost always situations happening in Guyana.
In 1981, Arnos Vale, in St. Vincent, and Antigua & Barbuda’s Recreation Ground became full-fledged ODI and Test grounds. FYI, 6-15 in the 1st ODI at A-V, and 6-74 in the 1st Test at ARG, were my inputs, but QPO always was my favorite ground. In five internationals there, I was “Man of the Match” four times, including that 8-29!
By CWC 2007, St. Kitts’ Warner Park, Grenada’s National Stadium at Queen’s Park, and St. Lucia’s Beausejour Stadium, had been added to international duties. Guyana’s new National Stadium (GNS) was also used, and SVRS has replaced ARG. Recently, Dominica’s Windsor Park gained international status. T&T’s Brian Lara’s Stadium, still not commissioned, will soon feature too!
All of the ten presently active international regional venues simply cannot survive with cricket alone, even if the games were to be sold out. They usually are not. These venues must find other ways of keeping themselves alive.
This is not unique to the Caribbean, but our population, 7 million, is much too small.
In Australia, with 20 million, it is done in the reverse. The value that the touring teams bring determines the venues at which they will play. For the Ashes between England and Australia, their biggest series, now on, the venues are the traditional, larger ones – (i) Woolloongabba, Brisbane (ii) Adelaide Oval (iii) Perth, Western Australia (WACA) (iv) Melbourne Cricket Ground and (v) Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
When West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand, lowly-rated teams, tour Australia, they play at the secondary venues e.g. Bellerive Oval in Tasmania, costs being the main factor.
Pointedly, during the commentary on Day 1, Test 1 – England v Australia – Geoff Boycott and Jonathan Agnew had this conversation about their Test games being sold out, but that the games in Abu Dhabi – Pakistan v South Africa, in Colombo – West Indies v Sri Lanka, and even in India – India v New Zealand were poorly attended.
Sri Lanka, like West Indies in 2006/2007, is also using new venues for ICC CWC 2011.  While Tests 1 and 2 are played at usual Test venues, Galle and Columbo’s R Premadasa Stadium, the 3rd Test, and two one-dayers, will be played at new stadiums; Pallakele International and Mahinda Rajapaksa International.
I believe that Sri Lanka, like West Indies, will struggle to find regular, normal cricket use of so many stadiums after the ICC CWC 2011, but that is par for the course.
In England, with population 70 million, the club where Clive Lloyd, David Lloyd, Andrew Flintoff and yours truly played, Lancashire County Cricket Club, cricket’s Old Trafford, is struggling to compete with new grounds in Hampshire and Glamorgan.
While it is understood that Caribbean venues must find usefulness, they will have to be very careful too. In the 1990’s, Sydney Cricket Ground hosted a rock concert just before a West Indies tour. It took SCG many years to recover from the destruction that concert caused. Management swore that this would never happen again. To date, it has not!
QPO in T&T, and Kensington Oval, in Barbados, are the only Test venues in the Caribbean that are in almost daily use, to bring in much needed revenue. Both have set schedules and are privately run. They must generate their own livelihood!
Also, like Lords in London, after which it is re-modeled, K-O has daily tours, along with normal cricketing activities and important events, while QPO has some of the best restaurants in Port of Spain, meeting accommodations, other sports and a great party venue too. To do this, though, entities must have something very special to offer!
Of the others, only GNS has fairly regular use, for cricket, concerts and football.  All of the others would struggle too, if they were not subsidized by governments.
Also, some Caribbean stadiums have no ambiance. GNS, SVRS and a few others have nothing to show off, so remotely placed they are. They are so bland and lifeless! Stanford series, ICC T-20 World Cup 2010 and WICB T-20 2010 brought great crowds to venues where played. Except for India and England tours, and only in a few venues, can WICB be sure to make good revenue.
Where are these clubs, especially the private ones, to get the needed funds?  All they can do is run like any other business. The venues must pay for themselves. The only way that could be done is to rent out the unsubsidized facilities.
If the respective cricket boards around the Caribbean want to, or need to, use these non-subsidized international venues, then the cricket boards have to plan long term. A couple of weeks ago, Deryck Murray, ironically one who mastered his cricket at QPO, made that exact valid point. Cricket anywhere must be planned, for years on end, to have cohesion.
On planning, venues and scheduling, I give limited praise to WICB. At the very least, they have concrete plans for both the women and men teams, senior and “A”s, for tours for at least the next seven months. That has never happened previously, with such clarity.
There is still no full venue scheduling, but it is a start. The greatest bug-bear for these plans will be the fickle weather, as the Lankans themselves are finding out now. Anyway, the way things are evolving; it is feasible that, while they will want the prestige of hosting internationals, some venues in the Caribbean will have to make hard choices.
They will either rent the spaces at their venues to extra-curricular activities, outside of cricket, and make money, but lose visibility and cricketing prestige, or do the cricket, and maybe end up with white elephants.
Some of these well known cricket grounds could soon divorce cricket! Enjoy!
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