As a dedicated servant of cricket dating back close to half a century, Dr Donovan Bennett, who won presidency of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) on Thursday, defeating long-standing incumbent Mr Wilford “Billy” Heaven, should be well aware of the thorny job ahead.

In the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, Dr Bennett, an energetic medical practitioner, was a leading force, “head cook and bottle washer”, in establishing St Elizabeth Technical High School as the top cricket-playing high school in Jamaica.

Back in the 1970s and 80s especially, participation in and support for cricket was at a high level
— driven in part by the world-beating success of the regional team, West Indies.

Today, decades later, West Indies cricket is struggling badly despite the odd triumph.

And while the recent success of Jamaica’s women in regional 50-over and Twenty20 (T20) competitions brought smiles, the men’s team is probably at its weakest ever.

The latter reality was hammered home in the just-ended regional men’s four-day tournament with the Jamaica Scorpions franchise placing sixth in the eight-team league. Despite playing all their games at home, the Scorpions lost to all their traditional regional rivals, only overcoming the youthful though highly talented West Indies Academy and the Combined Campuses and Colleges.

The unkindest cut, perhaps, was a huge innings defeat to Trinidad and Tobago in the final game of the season.

Jamaicans moan and groan about the ‘demise’ of West Indies cricket, but it seems to this newspaper that the greatest demise of all has been Jamaica’s cricket
— recently described by one prominent former player as the “laughing stock” of the region.

Throughout the recent season, the Jamaican batting, a source of pride dating back to the legendary Mr George Headley close to 100 years ago, was an absolute embarrassment.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that among the reasons for the nosedive in Jamaica’s cricket has been neglect of development programmes at all levels, including parishes, clubs, and in schools.

Active, innovative, even basic promotion of the grand sport of bat and ball has been anaemic at best for many years. Inevitably, that has translated to very little support from the business community, which is essential if any sport is to thrive.

Mr Heaven has claimed success in significantly improving the JCA’s financial standing.

That’s extremely important, but other aspects, on and off the field, must also take priority. In the latter regard his administration failed badly.

As vice-president to Mr Heaven, and a board member of Cricket West Indies, Dr Bennett can’t entirely escape blame for the state of cricket in Jamaica.

He should not expect a honeymoon period as he takes over the reins. There will be intense scrutiny at every turn as he moves to unite friends and foes for the greater good of Jamaica and West Indies cricket.

An advantage for him is his renowned passion for the sport. That came out in no uncertain fashion in his condemnation of the Jamaican Government’s shameful failure to bid for hosting rights for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and North America.

Incredibly, for whatever reason, Mr Heaven stayed quiet in that regard — something which surely hurt him badly on Thursday.

We wish Dr Bennett, his new Administration, and Jamaica’s cricket all that’s good on the rocky, difficult road ahead.