President of the Kingston Cricket Club Errol Ziadie gave a clear indication on Saturday night that the Sabina Park-based Kingston Cricket Club, a male-only institution since its establishment in 1863, could be attracting female members soon.

ZIADIE... we must move with the times

"Kingston Cricket Club, I think, is recognising the fact that this is 2004 and that we are moving on and times change and we must move with the times," Ziadie said at the club's annual awards dinner to loud applause from club members and guests, including wives and female friends.

He paid tribute to the work ethic and organisational skills of women. "I am quite sure that when you look around you this afternoon if it wasn't for the ladies present we would not have half the house that we have...

When I go to a function... at Melbourne (cricket club) where you do have female members, the females are the ones who are charged with putting on such a function. (It's) always very successful and always very well, attended. So, gentlemen, let us put on our thinking caps because that is where we are going," Ziadie added.

Ziadie was responding to a suggestion by president of the Jamaica Women's Cricket Association Chadene Allen that Kingston should be welcoming women to its membership soon. Allen's comments came in the midst of a toast to the club for its contribution to Jamaican cricket.

Ziadie said Allen had created history since she was the "first female as far as I am aware to move the toast" to the club, adding that, "... maybe it's the sign of things to come".

As he has done previously, Zadie argued that "Kingston Cricket Club does not preclude itself from female members because there is nothing in our rule book which says women are not allowed as members and none of you can find that in a rule book. It doesn't say anything about being gentlemen's members only either... we haven't had an application (from women) ... and I don't know why".

However, perceptions of gender bias at the club have long been reinforced by signs on the lower floor of the clubhouse prohibiting "ladies" and "children" from the downstairs bar. Women are regularly entertained on the second and third floors of the club house. Saturday night's function was held on the second floor.

Don Lockerbie, the Cricket World Cup 2007 executive, who delivered the main address, referred to the signs prohibiting "ladies" and "children" during a humorous anecdote. His speech focused on plans for the World Cup, which is to be held in the Caribbean for the first time.

Sabina Park, which is owned by Kingston Cricket Club, will host seven World Cup games, including the tournament opener and one semi-final.

In January, Sport Minister Portia Simpson Miller openly called on the club to open its doors to women. And two years ago, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said it had formally approved an anti-discriminatory policy opposing "injustices" of all kinds in West Indies cricket, including perceived gender-bias.

The WICB said at the time the decision was taken in light of the practice by several Caribbean cricket clubs of excluding persons from their facilities or from membership, because of race, gender or religion.

In October, the famous Queen's Park Cricket Club in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, voted to accept women as members.

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