Cricket a way of living

Cricket should be seen as a possible means of livelihood and young players should work hard and establish a meaningful value system.

This is the opinion of former Barbados and West Indies opening batsman, Desmond Haynes, who made the point as he addressed the audience at a dinner and awards ceremony to celebrate the achievement of the Barbados team, which won an Under-13 cricket tournament in St. Kitts recently.

Haynes said when he got into the West Indies team, he recognised he was junior partner to Gordon Greenidge, whose place in the team was more secure.

He set out to learn as much as possible from Greenidge and to establish an effective partnership with him.

Speaking to an audience which included the Under-13 players, parents, National Sports Council (NSC) personnel, Director of Sport Erskine King, and NSC chairman and member of Parliament Duncan Carter, Haynes questioned the priorities of some modern-day players.

"I know a lot of youngsters, when they first play for West Indies, they buy motor car and fancy brand name gear," he said.

He shared his personal feelings with the youngsters, stressing the fact that he saw the opportunity to improve his family's situation through his success in cricket. He said that for him, it was important to provide adequate housing for his mother.

"I also went on to realise that this cricket could be taken as a very serious development in my life, coming from Holder's Hill and after a while I realised that I must play `mortgage cricket'.

"In other words, I went out there to bat not only for West Indies and the fans and so forth but also to pay my mortgage," Haynes said.

The former Barbados and West Indies captain also impressed upon the youngsters the need to set challenging goals rather than be content with mediocrity.

"I did not want to play cricket for the West Indies for one or two years. We've got some people now that when they get into the side, they are happy to be known as a West Indian cricketer; but I believe that what you've got to do when you get into the West Indies side, you've got to start saying to yourself you want to play for them for a long time and that was my intention.

"I want you guys to realise that when you get into the West Indies side, don't look to play for one year, play for ten years," Haynes said.