T Becca: WIBC should stick to it (28 April 1998)

April 28, 1998

Stick to it

Tony Becca

CRICKET: The West Indies Cricket Board's plan to introduce literacy tests as a pre-requisite for selection to territorial teams is being condemned by a number of people. It should, however, be applauded as a move in the right direction.

According to those against the test, cricket is cricket, the business of the West Indies Board is cricket, and the ability to play the game should be the only requirement to represent either a territory or the West Indies.

Fortunately, it appears that those who are condemning the West Indies Board and president Pat Rousseau for the proposal are in the minority, and hopefully the Board will stand its ground and go ahead with its plan.

Ask anyone involved in cricket, locally or regionally, and he will tell you about the number of players in the under 15 and under 19 age group who cannot read and write and also his experiences with them. He will also tell you that over the years that has not been confined to age group cricketers and that many of the region's talented players have fallen by the wayside for no other reason than their failure to perform at the highest level because of the inability to reason and to deal with pressure.

On top of all that, there is life after cricket. There is also the possibility of injury - something which, despite his talent, can prevent a player from reaching the promised land of fame and fortune. The fear of those against the proposal is that many of the finest sportsmen and sportswomen come out of the under-privileged section of society and that many who are blessed with the talent to play the game well will be shut out of West Indies cricket and thus lose the opportunity to excel at what they can do.

Based on the proposal, however, that will not happen.

Apart from a social conscience which says that it should be involved in the personal development of those who play the game, the Board, in fact, is simply attempting to ensure that those with talent make the best use of their talent.

According to the proposal, the players will be monitored from a tender age, and those who need help will be afforded that help. The players will not be cast aside - not unless, as some of them are doing now, not unless, as many teachers in schools have been complaining about, they have no interest in improving themselves. And if they have no interest in improving themselves, they really have nowhere going - regardless of their talent or what, so often, is loosely called talent.

The Board is not looking for A students - although that would be nice. The Board is looking for functional people - for people who can reason, for players who will go on to represent the West Indies well, on and off the field, for players who can use their ability to develop themselves, and that is what the proposal is all about.

If the West Indies Board deserves to be chastised, it is for its tardiness in doing what should have been done a long time ago. It is, however, better late than never, and if the Board succeeds in emphasing the importance of a rounded development of young cricketers, if it gets the regional associations, the clubs, the schools, and wherever young players are nurtured to play their part in that kind of development, by the time the youngsters are ready for the West Indies team they will be well prepared.

Cricket is cricket, and selection to teams should primarily be based on the ability to play the game. Cricket, however, has a responsibility to those who play the game, and apart from ensuring that they are literate enough to make the best use of their talent and their skills for the greater glory of West Indies cricket, part of that responsibility must be their development as people.

That is what the proposal, aimed at young players, is all about - nothing else

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)