MENTION Linden and sports to any individual and readily that person would say football and basketball and even mention players such as Collie ‘Hitman’ Hercules, Kayode McKinnon, Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai and Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts, just to name a few.
If one should try to relate cricket to the mining town and even call the name Basil Butcher, that person would receive a puzzled look from the individual.
However, the Clive Lloyd-led Interim Management Committee (IMC) met with the Upper Demerara Cricket Association (UDCA) at the Linden Enterprise Networks building yesterday. The meeting was a successful one, taking into consideration Lloyd’s words during the wrap-up, in which three key areas were identified.
According to Williams, yesterday’s meeting was the penultimate one of eight organised by the IMC, with today’s meeting, scheduled for the Berbice High School from 12:00hrs being the final one. To date, the IMC is pleased with the response shown by the cricketing public.
As was customary with the previous meetings, Lloyd outlined the Mission Statement of the IMC to the UDCA, which is “To facilitate development, good governance and proper administration of Guyana’s cricket and thereby raising its standard in the country.”
But what gripped the attention of both Lloyd and retired Major-General Norman McLean, was what the acting president of the UDCA Bradley Fredericks told the audience. He said the sport has been deteriorating in the mining town for the longest while.
This was said after Winston Caesar, an ardent cricket fan, called on the UDCA to do much more for cricket, enabling the sport to generate as much interest in comparison to the more fancied sport, football, stating that there is a wealth of cricketing talent in areas such as Kwakwani, Ituni and even Arima.
“No game was played in Linden between 1980 and 2001, when Mr. and Mrs. Burns came and revived the sport which was already dead and buried to many individuals here in Linden,” stated Fredericks.
He added, “Some grounds had deteriorated during the time of inactivity, while lots of potential players turned to football and basketball and even though the present UDCA is trying its utmost to bring the sport back to the days of yore, the unavailability of grounds and lack of support are preventing same from being successful.”
Like many other sports, sponsorship is a key to success and that has been lacking in Linden over the years with the business entity finding it more pleasurable to sponsor football or even basketball.
McLean called on the UDCA to have strong leadership, saying it is critical along with proper equipment and coaching in the three important factors missing in Linden when it comes to cricket.
“You need to have individuals who can go out there and capture the market, while at the same time I suggest that teams in the outlying areas, come together in their respective areas, form a sub-association that is affiliated to the UDCA and organise matches,” said the 67-year-old Lloyd.
Other suggestions that floated around during the meeting included one for the UDCA to be added to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) as another member, similar to the Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo Cricket Boards.
According to Bissoondyal Singh, a former vice-president of the GCB and president of the East Coast Cricket Board (ECCB), steps were being taken to adopt the UDCA in such a capacity, but for several reasons which he declined to mention, it was not done.
Singh also pointed out to the audience, that the UDCA was isolated from the Constitution of both the GCB and Demerara Cricket Board and steps to have them integrated into same was met with objection by several members of the GCB, another statement that left McLean with a puzzled look.
With regard to the resuscitation and development of the sport in the mining town, president of the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) and former Guyana and West Indies all-rounder Roger Harper said it would be nice to see the sport re-introduced in the schools.
‘The number of young people with cricketing talent in the area should be given the opportunity to showcase same. They should be given assistance with coaching and training programmes which can help them in the long run, while at the same time develop the sport,” said Harper.
Other persons present at the consultation included former Chairman of Selectors Claude Raphael, president of the Linden Chamber of Commerce Marvin Burns, Ronald Williams, Malcolm Peters and former GCB statistician Ronald Legall.
In his brief wrap-up remarks, Lloyd asked the present executives of the UDCA to look closely at administration, acquisition of proper equipment and grounds, equipping their officials (scorers and umpires) so they can be more efficient and be more sturdy with their marketing drive, which would aid in reviving the sport.