by EZRA STUART
CLUBS can count on the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) for assistance.
In a move to enhance the administration of clubs and the development of cricketers, all Upper Intermediate teams will now have coaches like their Division One counterparts.
Groundsmen will also receive training, as well as administrators of the clubs which come under the BCA’s auspices.
These announcements were made by president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Joel Garner in his feature address at the 2010 awards ceremony at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre last Saturday night.
“These coaches all have WICB Level 2 accreditation and are mentored by the full-time coaches employed by the BCA, led by our director of coaching [Henderson Springer],” Garner said.
On the offer of help to the clubs in the form of training for their administrators, Garner said: “This will be a critical element to ensure that the clubs are able to maintain themselves and grow.“It is essential that they have the skills to manage the environment within which our future players will continue to develop their competitive skills,” he added.
Garner – who captured 259 wickets in 58 Tests at an average of 20.97, and another 146 in 98 One-Day Internationals at just 18.84 runs apiece with an economy rate of 3.09 runs an over – said the BCA would also train resource people who would then teach groundsmen.
“I don’t have to tell you that the type of cricketers we produce will be affected by the surfaces on which they play,” he asserted noting the BCA would also continue the courses for scorers which started two years ago.
The former West Indies fast bowler also disclosed that it costs the BCA $240 000 annually to pay the umpires’ fees for clubs and another $86 000 yearly to provide balls.He revealed that all First Division clubs have already been given bowling machines.
“But our assistance does not end there. Each year, we set aside half-million dollars to provide clubs with further assistance to improve their infrastructure and provide much needed equipment, particularly drive mowers,” he said.
Garner, 58, who succeeded Tony Marshall as the BCA’s boss a few years ago, said he was pleased that clubs had taken advantage of the association’s assistance.
“What we are really doing is creating an environment within the clubs that provides infrastructure, equipment, coaching, and improved finances so that a player has all of the elements necessary to develop,” he said.
