Still has gas in his tank

Do you remember Gregory Gaskin?

He is the former Maple Division I batsman who used to score heavily in the Barbados Cricket Association's (BCA) leading club competition about a decade ago.

He even once scored a century at national trials and was regarded by some as a trifle unfortunate not to have played for Barbados.

The unassuming Gaskin, however, has been in the wilderness for eight years since opting to turn to the obscurity of the Barbados Cricket League (BCL) competitions.

But he still continues to make runs with the same level of consistency as when he was one of Maple's leading batsmen in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

His name has now become commonplace in the weekly BCL scores that appear in the Nation's Tuesday sports pages.

And last Friday, he was accepting an award for his outstanding 2000 season in which his 750 runs for Shannon in the Conrad Hunte Division were the most by any batsman in any of the league's six divisions.

It is about hard work. After I left BCA cricket I still continued to train hard in the BCL, the 37-year-old Gaskin said. No matter what standard you are playing, you have got to give of your best. My motto is to give of our best all the time.

Gaskin left the BCA competition in 1993 at a time when he was still among the leading run-scorers and his decision might have come as a surprise to some.

I still thought I was good enough to play in the BCA but I was trying to make room for youngsters to come through, he said.

I love playing for my community. That was the biggest reason for me moving back to the BCL to play with the fellas that I grew up with. I get more enjoyment that way.

Even in recent years, there were suggestions that he could play for the struggling BCL Division I team which would have benefited from a batsman of his skills and experience.

I would like to assist the BCL first division team in any way I could, he said.

He did so for one match at the end of last season when his team was short of men.

But again, I am getting on in age now. To be playing BCA Division I cricket is robbing a youngster of a play. I prefer to relax in the BCL, Gaskin added.

He admits that the standard of cricket in the BCL is not the highest. But it does not mean anyone can dominate, he emphasised.

The standard is a bit low, no two ways about it, Gaskin said.

The players are not as good. The conditions are not good either. The pitches are a lot slower and sometimes you find one or two that are not properly prepared.

It is, however, a challenge.

I don't think everybody who is going to run from BCA to BCL will get runs, Gaskin said. There is a period of adjustment. You still have to apply yourself. There is nothing easy about it.

Anyone who makes a century in national trials these days will almost certainly play for Barbados.

But Gaskin came at a time when competition for places was stiff and his hundred in the early 1990s gained him no national recognition.

I don't really think I was unlucky, Gaskin said. I was around good players Sherwin Campbell, Philo Wallace, Adrian Griffith, Floyd Reifer, Roland Holder. All these guys went on to play Test cricket. I was in good company. Everybody can't play.

He gets his satisfaction from playing in the BCL and winning awards annually.