They ought to be ashamed

It was a pity that Wes Hall couldn't make it to Grenada last Monday for the launching of the impressive Shell Cricket Academy at St. George's University last Monday.

If he had, we might have known whether the great fast bowler would have laughed or cried.

It is almost nine years now since Hall, then minister of sport, detailed plans for the creation of just such an academy at what is now the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex at Wildey.

It is only necessary to recycle parts of this column from the Sunday Sun of May 31, 1992, to appreciate the depth of what the headline writer termed Hall's Dream.

We must also ask why, after so many years, absolutely nothing has been done here while an American university in Grenada has come along and fulfilled the dream of another visionary Barbadian, Dr. Rudi Webster?

Here, then, is an abridged version of that column.

Draw your own conclusions at the end of it.

It is hardly surprising that there should be an important cricket element in the elaborate and exciting new sporting complex at Wildey. It is not so much that it is our national sport, but that the responsible ministry is headed by someone still more famous as a cricketer than a politician.

Wes Hall announced last week that, in addition to the spanking new gymnasium that will be handed over by the Chinese at the end of next month, the already-opened swimming centre and the still-to-beconstructed tennis courts and hockey and football fields, there will be a cricket academy and a new cricket ground.

It has been a bee in his bonnet for some time. Like everyone else with Barbados' cricket at heart, Hall has been troubled by its unmistakeable decline, evident not only in the fewer and fewer Test players now coming forward but also in the lack of interest that has caused some schools with rich cricketing heritage to reduce their number of teams in the club competitions.

He is keen that something should be done about it and he is perfectly positioned to take the lead. He has personally visited the Australian Cricket Academy that was established four years ago as part of the Australian Institute of Sport to prepare the cream of their teenaged talent for the increasingly tough world of first-class and Test cricket.

Situated in Adelaide, it is now headed by former Australian wicketkeeper Rod Marsh who is able to call on a large group of coaches and Test players, past and present, for help in the teaching and training of the young players (each chosen by their home states) in the various aspects of the game.

With the co-operation of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and the West Indies Cricket Board of Control, Hall envisages the Wildey venture as providing similar resources for young Barbadian and West Indian players. He talks enthusiastically, if hypothetically, of the Windwards, for instance, sending up five or six of their best schoolboys for a few weeks to the academy, staying in the on-site dormitories, having the game and their knowledge of it sharpened by the likes of Sir Garry Sobers, Everton Weekes, Charlie Griffith and Gordon Greenidge.

He foresees the Wildey ground as the headquarters for the Combined Schools team and the indoor nets that would be built there available to all cricketers in Barbados, especially useful for practice in the rainy season and at night, especially for those who can't find the time to rush to their clubs after work.

But there is another, more material benefit for such a facility that would not be lost on Wes Hall as he changes his cricket cap for his tourism sombrero.

Barbados enjoys an esteem for its cricket that we take for granted and certainly haven't made the best use of. Dozens of teams of varying standards come every year on cricketing holidays, mainly organised by tour operators out of England, enjoying the opposition and the hospitality the locals can provide.

Whatever the touring team, the cricket academy would offer an additional attractive service, that of proper practice and coaching facilities.

To those wary of government spending and satisfied that Barbados' cricket has reached its exalted position without such schemes, Wes Hall's vision of an academy will appear grandiose, expensive and even unnecessary.

To those who recognise its diminishing standard and the significant link with tourism, it is none of those things.

Not long after that, of course, Hall's political career came to an abrupt end and no one, in government or BCA, since has had either the energy or the interest to follow up on his dream.

The tennis courts and the artificial turf hockey facility are both in place. But the land earmarked for the cricket ground and academy remains overrun by bush.

Somehow, I think Wes would have wept had he been in Grenada on Monday evening. There are others in this country who should hang their heads in shame.