The large crowds have not been turning out yet, but league cricket has made a quiet comeback in St James with the playing of a eight-team competition that ends this Saturday with Roehampton CC hosting former many times champions Riahs CC in the final.

Despite not yet attracting a sponsor, the league by all means has been contested – well except for Granville who lost all their games – and is full of enthusiasm.

The Cecil Fletcher-led administration must be commended for taking the initiative of plunging ahead and filling a void that was left after club cricket in St James collapsed in the late 1980s, as opposed to waiting until they had all the parts in place to resume club cricket.

Already a few big-name players such as national players Lorenzo Ingram from Trelawny and Sean Findley from St Elizabeth, have turned out in the league and the hope is that the competition will be able to attract others come next season.

It is important that there be a next season and one that will have a sponsor or two and it is important that the game continues to grow in the region.

It is not coincidental that the demise of club cricket in the parish also saw the demise of the game in schools from primary through to high schools.

Big-time cricket is nothing new to St James and the list of players who honed their craft here could fill more than one very competitive team.

The likes of former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams, former West Indies player Nehemiah Perry, former West Indies youth player Trevor Samuels and many others who played at the national level were regulars when there were up to five competitions being run every season.

Cricket in the parish compared to only the Senior Cup in the Corporate Area and attracted quality sponsorships to match the level of play.

It is ironic that the games greatest weekend, around June 11, 1989, also coincided with one of its most disgraceful and eventual collapses.

Riahs beat Providence in a hotly contested and fiery three-day game to lift the title but many who thought they had a right to win and were stung by the loss, abused their powers by trumping up charges and banning almost the entire Riahs team in a move that would certainly have gotten the approval of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mogabe.

Whatever the allegations, the boardroom shenanigans by the very same people who took part in the game, signalled the end of the game in the parish.

But that is history and the future must be the critical focus right now.

It is good to see venues outside of the city being used to host games as well as getting Barnett oval back to a condition where cricket can

be played.

The new forward-thinking cricket board needs all the help they can get to move this great game forward and hopefully soon we will all be looking to the local game with great interest once more.