WI local:'Spoilt Adults' hurting game-Fanfare

The Piton Malta Primary Schools Cricket is coming to an end and a lot of the fireworks have not been restricted to the middle.

Parents, relatives and well-wishers have watched the matches and it has been a concern of many followers that sometimes things became too "hot".

It came to a head recently when the umpires were abused by some fans on the sideline after a leg-before decision.

Former West Indies wicket-keeper/batsman Thelston Payne, a National Sports Council coach, said he was one of the umpires who was lambasted.

Payne, who still plays in the Division 1 competition, said what saddened him was when one youngster called him a "thief".

"It doesn't send the right message to the kids. I feel that if we go out there to do a job, we don't go out there to pick sides," he said.

Richard Straker, a coach and former Barbados batsman, said the youngster who accused Payne of stealing was one of his charges.

"My concern is, that for a youngster which one of us coached, to call a coach a thief, that really got to me. I think that influence came from a parent or the supporters," Straker said.

Another coach, George Linton, said the problem stemmed from parents coming around as soon as the schools got into the last 16-the play-off rounds.

Linton, a former Barbados leg-spinner, said in the early stages of the competition the teachers were the ones who had to prepare the children, but as soon as word got around that the school was doing well, then some parents and supporters tried to take over.

"It is difficult because if a parent tells a child to go somewhere, it is only obvious that the child is going to go where his parent sent him," Linton said.

"I find that the parents are not allowing the children to enjoy the game. You even get parents calling schools or the office enquiring why their child wasn't in the team.

"You have a school of 500 children and for the school to pick 11 and you to make noise with a games teacher for not including your son or daughter in a team is really ridiculous."

Linton noted that too much emphasis was being placed on winning and not really looking at the development of the children.

He added that the same way the supporters could come during the games and heckle the games teachers, it wouldn't take anything away from them to take two evenings a week after school and help the teachers with the children.

Trevor Alleyne, coach of St. Catherine Primary for the last two years, said one could understand people who lived around a school would naturally be interested in the players' progress.

"What I have found out is that a coach would tell the boys aspects of the game on that morning when you come to play a game. Then you have shouts of `don't do this', `come here', `put this man there' and sometimes you have the boys standing on the field not knowing what to do," he said.

Alleyne added he found a number of parents became very aggressive and even made personal remarks which put a lot of pressure on the boys.

William Gittens described it as a case of Barbadians copying the behaviour of parents in the United States.

"They become even more involved than the children themselves and their behaviour sometimes leaves a lot to be desired," he said.

Henderson Franklyn, who has umpired some of the games and has a son playing in next Wednesday's final, said it all could be a sign of bad parenting when a child would call a coach a thief.

Franklyn said the pressure was so much that he saw a parent cry with a child after the son got run out from a good throw and came off crying.

"I tell my son when he is out, come in and don't make any row."