'Good for cricket'

If the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) finally decides to proceed with the introduction of the country's third lottery, local clubs would benefit from the estimated $3.5 million the BCA stands to gain annually from the lottery.

That's the word from Robert B. Washington, chairman and chief executive officer of the Leeward Islands Lottery Holding Company (LILHC), the company which the BCA board of management two years ago voted to enter into a contract to operate a lottery on behalf of cricket.

Our single objective is to work with the cricket community on a sustainable revenue source for cricket, Washington told reporters yesterday at the Desmond Haynes Sports Complex in Holder's Hill, St. James.

We will be announcing on Sunday a special programme to ensure that the clubs also have an independent sustainable revenue source as well.

We have a proposal that we would like to give to them to ensure that there are two independent, distinguishable revenue sources one for the BCA and the other for the local clubs.

It was the intention to get the lottery off the ground two years ago, but it was delayed after the BCA membership opted not to proceed with the lottery at an extraordinary general meeting on June 3, 1999.

On Monday, the BCA will hold an extraordinary general meeting at the Lester Vaughan School, St Thomas, at which members will receive a report from the board of management pertaining to the operation of the lottery.

The meeting will seek to confirm, annul, vary or discharge the resolution surrounding the operation of a lottery passed at the extraordinary general meeting of June 3, 1999.

Over two years have passed since that initial vote and agreement to operate a lottery, and more importantly since then, the BCA has been frustrated by a lack of financial resources and the declining glory of cricket, Washington said yesterday at a venue that was chosen because of the history of an area which has produced so many outstanding cricketers.

We feel that loyal, passionate BCA members want to restore the programmes that will lead cricket back to its glory days, he said.

Washington, a Harvard Law School trained Washington-based senior counsel who up until recently was a senior partner in a leading firm in Washington, believes that the BCA leaders who approached the LILHC two years ago had a proactive and viable idea to increase the association's financial resources.

Continuing to delay this plan for generating revenue for the organisation only further hastens the decline of cricket, added the LILHC chief executive.

That is why we are calling on all members of the BCA to support and approve the immediate implementation of the Barbados Cricket Lottery and confirm the agreement that enables the BCA/LILHC partnership to contribute to the glory of cricket in Barbados.