Facilities for Cricket - Not!!!
One of the things which distresses, and embarrasses, me most, as I sometimes travel to other countries around the world to cover cricket, is the lack of proper cricketing facilities, in all aspects, here in the Caribbean
Colin Croft
02-Feb-2000
One of the things which distresses, and embarrasses, me most, as
I sometimes travel to other countries around the world to cover
cricket, is the lack of proper cricketing facilities, in all
aspects, here in the Caribbean. With the 2007 Cricket World Cup
slated for our neck of the woods, we need to have started
yesterday to put these properly in place.
Comparing everything wherever I have gone in Australia, New
Zealand, England, India and South Africa; (I have not yet gone to
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh nor Zimbabwe to cover cricket),
from the stadia where the cricket is played, to the facilities
for the press, paying patrons and even the players, to those in
the Caribbean, is really the proverbial comparison of "chalk to
cheese."
While press identification passes, and even players
identification passes are normally required to be worn by all in
most places, the only place I have been asked to produce passes
on a regular basis, by the same personnel every year, no less, is
in the Caribbean. Although I always have them available, I have
never been asked to produce an entrance/identification badge
anywhere outside of the Caribbean. That, I suppose, is neither
here nor there, since the gate personnel could suggest that
he/she is only doing his/her job "properly".
However, I would suggest this. The respective cricket
authorities in the Caribbean must become quickly aware, if they
are not so aware yet, and place unbiased and cricket-informed
people, even professional security people, at the entrance gates,
so that everyone is asked for passes, not just the few that
someone seems to want to embarrass, for whatever purpose.
Last year, for example, Sir Everton Weekes, of Barbados, of all
people, known world-wide as one of our best batsmen ever, was
told by a gate man at the Kensington Oval in Barbados; "Sir
Everton, I know you played for the West Indies, but I cannot let
you into the cricket without a proper pass." There is not much
one can say about that, is there? Incidentally, Sir Everton was
actually doing commentary then too.
The playing facilities, though, should take the priority. Ask
any West Indian cricketer, from the Test team to the Under 19 and
even the Under 15 teams, and they would tell you. They too are
badly embarrassed when they get to those far away lands and
experience the facilities there. Roger Harper's comment when he
coached the "A" team's tour to South Africa a few years ago was
apt: "When you look at these facilities in these overseas
countries, it is no wonder that their players really want to play
cricket. Everything is put into place to encourage them to play
and play well."
In Kimberley, South Africa, for example, during the senior team's
last tour, all of the players were amazed, and many of them
voiced that amazement, that such a small place, where Otis Gibson
and Keppler Wessells played for Griqualand West in their first
class competition, could provide such facilities. Not only at
"The Diamonds" were these available, but everywhere. Everywhere,
there were at least three indoor net pitches, and at least four
outdoor pitches. If my memory serves me correctly, none of these
outdoor practice pitches were on the "real" field of play.
The same goes for most of the United Kingdom, except perhaps
Trent Bridge in Nottingham, all of Australia and all of New
Zealand and most of India. Indeed, the practice facilities at
the Adelaide Oval in Australia, in my opinion, are the best in
the world, just better than those at the Wanderers, in
Johannesburg, in South Africa. Under these conditions, fast
bowlers can operate at full throttle while batsmen could really
concentrate to make every practice session as close to the game
conditions as possible. After all, proper practice is so very
important if one wants success in the actual games.
In the Caribbean, with the exception for the Queens Park Oval in
Trinidad & Tobago, where there are about four outdoor practice
pitches, there are no outdoor practice facilities available at
the cricket venue, in very near proximity of perhaps a game in
progress. In Jamaica, Guyana, Antigua & Barbuda and most of the
other territories, outdoor practice is either carried out on the
actual outfield of the Test arena before the international game,
or the practice is completely removed from the Test venue
altogether. Indoor facilities are, maybe, only available in
Antigua & Barbuda.
Everest Sports Club in Guyana and Melbourne Sports Club in
Jamaica, among others, are sometimes used for this latter purpose
of practice away from the game venue. One must wonder what would
happen if a batsman needs a quick ten-fifteen minute "proper"
practice hit-up during a Test game, before he bats, as is
sometimes required (I have actually bowled to (Sir) Viv Richards,
among others, at the Adelaide Oval while they waited their turn
to bat). Would he be taxied to the nearest ground with a walkman
on his ear, to know when he is in? I am sure that most sports
fans see baseball pitchers warming up in their "bull-pens" before
being brought to the mound to do their thing. You see my point,
I hope.
As far as the players changing facilities are concerned in the
Caribbean, very little has changed, except perhaps the occasional
coat of paint. The Queens Park Oval in Trinidad & Tobago, the
Bourda Oval in Guyana and the Kensington Oval in Barbados, while
building new stands, have done nothing to change the cramped
changing rooms that I myself once inhabited, with eleven other
guys, more than twenty years ago. While Antigua & Barbuda and
Jamaica have improved their changing room facilities for the
players somewhat, and Arnos Vale in St. Vincent and the new
stadium in St. Georges, Grenada provide just adequate room for
the players, all of the changing rooms in the Caribbean pale when
compared to the rest of the cricket world.
In these days of ongoing professional cricket, when every player
has a large cricket case to carry all of the equipment needed, a
"coffin", and almost as large as the real thing, and where such
things as weight rooms, saunas, steam rooms and baths, and even
proper medical rooms, are required at the players' quick "beck
and call", as niggling injuries and pained bodies need continuing
work and relaxation too, the state of the changing rooms in the
Caribbean, for the most important people in the cricket, the
players, is appalling. As far as I know, the only weight room in
quick proximity of a major cricket arena in the Caribbean is at
the Queens Park Oval.
This is 2000AD, folks, not 1000BC.
I have been to many soccer stadiums around the world, and even
visited Joe Robbie (Pro Player) American Football stadium in
Miami and Giants Stadium in New Jersey. One thing is very
obvious when one visits these places. The players, the people
who bring in the money, as they are the ones the populace come to
see, are pampered, sometimes beyond belief, with facilities.
New Zealand was a revelation too. While all of the cricket
arenas have every convenience necessary for the games at hand,
the new WestPac Trust stadium, in which the West Indies had the
honor, if not the pleasure, of being involved in the inaugural
cricket game, is something else, as they, sensibly, went further.
Even before it was built, the Trust's management spoke to, and
took advice from, the players, both of cricket and rugby, for
which it will be used, the press and from the paying public, as
to what exactly is required in a facility that they could be
using. That is a great sense of "hand washing hand to make hand
come clean" (Guyanese proverb). Everyone involved must be
exactly that: involved.
The press facilities at the cricket stadia in the Caribbean are
simply some of the worst in the world. In a sense, I might even
blame some of the press personnel themselves, of which,
sometimes, I am one. There is no real Press Association, at
least not in the sporting press, in the Caribbean, to organize
and keep things running properly in the Caribbean.
Food-wise, it is even funny. At the Queens Park Oval, unless you
come equipped with a roti-and-curry, or any such edible gotten
from elsewhere, you will probably starve for that day. In
Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Antigua & Barbuda, while the
victuals are sometimes available, it is normally from a "homemade" commercial venture, with some small vendor trying to make a
killing with their exorbitant prices.
While many of our sports journalists have not traveled overseas
much, I would really hope that most do soon, so that they could
see how the rest of the world really treats journalists there,
home and visiting personnel alike. Most overseas cricketing
bodies actually walk hand in hand with their press, as they know
that the press is there to help them propagate the sport. In the
Caribbean, the sporting press is seen as an appendage, sometimes
a hindrance.
Anything drinkable, from water to teas to even wines and beer,
sometimes, depending on the venue, along with properly catered
spreads, are normally available; the entire cost being financed
by the home Press Association. I do not know about other sports
journalists in the Caribbean who may have gone overseas, but
having gone around the world with this cricket, I am terribly
embarrassed when cricket tours come to the Caribbean and the
commentators and overseas sports journalists come here. I have
actually heard, and seen written, many openly complaining as to
the facilities here in the Caribbean.
Some of the physical facilities for the press in the Caribbean
are a shambles too. For a great example, I have been going to
places like Guaracara Park, in Trinidad & Tobago, for about 30
years, first as a player and now as a pseudo journalist. The
commentary and press facilities there, among some others in the
Caribbean, are so poor, with continually leaking roofs and
sometimes lack of electrical power, among other things, that even
normal lay persons, men and women not associated with the cricket
but who visit from time to time, ask the inevitable question;
"Are these the facilities that you guys work in and from? They
are pathetic!!"
I have not even touched on the actual preparations of the playing
pitches, or the lack thereof. That is another story altogether,
as is the lack of any lighted stadia in the Caribbean. In the
meantime, Australia will play South Africa, I think, in the new
completely covered stadium in Melbourne later this year.
These things are very relevant when we remember that in 2007, not
so long from now, the rest of the world is supposed to come to
our shores to be involved in the Cricket World Cup. I have heard
many already say that "we are not ready for that!!"
Folks, I am here to tell you that we have no choice but to be
ready. Caribbean cricket needs a Jack Warner (of FIFA fame), to
light a flame under our collective backsides; someone who gets
things done, and in the vast majority of cases, done well. We
must be ready for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, come what may. It
could be a great boon for all of us, if everything is properly
put in place.
It is probably already too late for the implementation of much of
what we should have already done. However, we must strive to see
what we can change now, even at this late stage. Time waits on
no-one.