`Spread it around'

A current West Indies batsman and a former West Indies spin bowler have called on cricketing authorities to return to the day when regional competition was played in all the territories.

Guyanese Ramnaresh Sarwan and Clyde Butts yesterday called for the Under-15, Under-19, and Red Stripe Bowl competitions to be spread so players could experience the different conditions.

The tournaments should be played in the various territories like before, so the players would get exposure to different conditions. Barbados and Jamaica are bouncier, while Guyana and Trinidad are flat, said Sarwan, who made his Test debut last year.

Butts, the present chairman of West Indies Under-19 selectors, said: There is a desperate need to spread the competitions around so the players can adjust to different surfaces.

The atmosphere in the various countries is different as well and it has shown because when we go overseas we realise our players are sometimes unable to adjust.

The Under-19 competition has been played in Guyana for the past two years, while the Under-15 has been staged in Trinidad for the past two seasons. Added to that, the Red Stripe Bowl finals have been staged in Jamaica from the tournament's inception in 1997.

Sarwan and Butts were in Barbados yesterday for a seminar on the development of cricket at school and junior level hosted by the West Indies at Island Inn. The co-ordinators were Peter Ackerley and Mike Leighton of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

They have to go back to the old format if we really want to see West Indies cricket go forward, said the 21-year-old Sarwan, who is the Guyana representative for Scotiabank Kiddies Cricket.

At youth level I played 1995 in Grenada, '96 in Jamaica, '97 in Guyana and '98 in Trinidad. That was a good foundation to develop and experience the different conditions. I learned a lot.

Butts, who played seven Tests in the 1980s, acknowledged there was an urgent need to share it around even though the finances might be limited.

The players should be the major focus as we try to get West Indies cricket back on track. When we travel, the players must have had the benefit of different conditions, he said.