Several stakeholders including the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) have expressed concern about the state of cricket at the secondary level even as ISSA chairman for rural cricket George Henry says significant investment is needed to change the bleak fortunes.

The high school cricket season officially ended last month following a special exhibition game between an All-Grace Shield team and All-Headley Cup team at Sabina Park. The respective under-19 competitions were completed in April with Excelsior winning the urban title and St Elizabeth Technical winning the rural title and all island title, the Spalding Cup.

JCA President Dr Donovan Bennett says he was pleased with the quality of some of the players, but says the overall competitions left much to be desired.

“I don’t think that the standard is as good as 10 or 15 years ago but it’s getting there,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“I was surprised with what I saw in some of the guys because looking at the scores at the schoolboy level this year, the scores for the most part were very low and from what I hear, plus I saw a few games myself, the standard of play is very low. But when you take the best out of each competition and put them together, they looked pretty good to me.”

Henry says the costs associated with cricket, combined with the overall lack of interest, cause many students to choose other activities.

“Cricket equipment is very expensive. A youngster who wants to play cricket will need cricket shoes, a pair of pads, a bat and other gadgets that they need to use in the game. Unlike a boy who will just pick up some money and buy a basketball because you don’t have to spend a lot to play that game,” he told the Observer.

“So some of the teams are suffering from a lack of quality players because many of the students aren’t interested because it’s too expensive and it takes a lot to make the students play the game. As the [school] bell rings, they’ll go home so a coach will have to grab a boy or in some instances a girl to have a full complement of players – not necessarily the best… so the low scores can be attributed to things like those.”

Henry also believes the unavailability of suitable cricket venues makes it difficult for teams to more effectively compete.

“When I was going to primary school which was a long time ago, all we needed was an area where we could establish as a pitch and it doesn’t have to be rolled, we just wanted a level place to play cricket. These days, in schools, the same field that they use for track and field and football is the same field they use for cricket,” he said.

“When it’s Champs (Athletics Championships) time and the field is being used by the track and field athletes, the players who are involved in cricket don’t have anywhere to train. The cricket team probably uses the playing field, maybe once or twice per week, because they have to give way for track and field or give way for football. DaCosta Cup and Manning Cup football [training] is going on now so anyone who has an interest in cricket is going to be left behind because they can’t use the field.”

Henry, the principal of Alphansus Davis High School, formerly Spalding High, says he recently introduced a cricket programme at his school. He considers himself fortunate to have this opportunity because of his position with ISSA, a privilege that many other schools do not enjoy.

“My school has been participating in cricket for just two years now and the reason being, we never had the money to get them playing before but because I’m the chairman now, I can knock on a door and beg something. Not every principal is lucky to benefit like how I’m benefit,” he said.

“I’m trying to build a programme, not necessarily to win Headley Cup, but to have a cadre of players who love the game, train hard and move on to represent the school, parish and even the West Indies. I tell my boys don’t worry too much about winning, it’s not necessarily about winning but playing the game and loving the game because if you love the game, you’ll play well.”

Forty-three schools participated in the respective Under-19 competitions and Henry doesn’t expect a significant jump any time soon.

“The first thing that you’re going to hear from Government or the Member of Parliament is that they don’t have money to assist and many schools want to participate in cricket but they can’t afford to make the purchase the equipment needed and if you don’t have the right equipment, you going to have another problem,” he said.

Henry says a greater focus needs to place on the primary level for the sport to improve drastically.

“You used to have a lot of primary school competitions but now we don’t have it more than so. When students come to [high] school, some are holding the bat for the very first time and some are afraid of the cricket ball,” he said.

“If it’s not done at the primary then we’re going to be having that problem for a long time to come. If you notice, it’s not just high schools having low scoring games — it’s right across the board so, therefore, if we’re to fix it, we have to start from the bottom and develop as we go along,” he explained.

HENRY… some of the teams are suffering from a lack of quality players because many of the students aren’t interested because it’s too expensive (Photo: Observer file)