Cricket `not what it used to be'

There are still too many Division 1 cricket teams in Barbados, and most of the players are either mediocre or downright poor, says Minister of Sport Rudolph Cappy Greenidge.

Piloting a resolution in the House of Assembly yesterday to take note of the Green Paper to establish a national sports policy, Greenidge painted a picture of woeful inadequacy across the local cricket landscape, saying the talent was being watered down.

There are about four good players in every team and the other seven are virtually mediocre and in some instances downright poor . . . People who should be watching cricket on Saturdays are playing. Batsmen with scores of 3, 8 and 17 are maintaining their play in our First Division teams, and when they make a pretty ten or 12 it is highlighted and put in the newspapers, he said.

He said in modern-day cricket when one struck 250 or 300 runs in a season of 13 matches, that guaranteed a play at trials.

In my day it was not like that. We had to struggle to make 500 runs to get to trials . . . and you had to take over 50 wickets every season . . . , but nowadays fellows are making it much too easily, he added.

Greenidge, a former cricket commentator and member of St Catherine Club, said when the Division 1 season used to comprise eight or nine matches, a good player was gauged by 350-odd runs, while the same barometer was being used today for 13 matches.

One of his chief concerns, he said, was that a lot of cricketers were not fit, and they either got run out easily or caused run-outs, while quite a few could not concentrate for long periods.

Greenidge also lamented the fact that fewer cricketers were practising in the nets or hanging around after cricket matches so as to chat with and learn from the more experienced players.

Stating that young cricketers no longer seemed to have the appetite to play, Greenidge cited instances where many Division 1 teams found it difficult to field 11 players.

We have to be very careful with what is happening to Barbados in terms of our sports. In the 1970s and 80s, even before that, every single cricket-playing country in this region had as its ambition to defeat Barbados . . . but today it seems as though we tend to be conspiring with them to ensure that they beat us each and every time they meet us, he stated.