Many Jamaicans now in their 20s and younger are blissfully unaware. However, up to just over two decades ago, Kingston College (KC), the all-boys institution on North Street in Kingston was among the leading cricket-playing schools in this country.

We dare to suggest that the decline of cricket at KC since the early 2000s has contributed to the downturn for the glorious sport of bat and ball in Jamaica.

The school, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, was first established with a mandate to provide a quality high school education, primarily for the descendants of enslaved Africans.

Slavery in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the wider British Empire ended in the 1830s.

We think it’s important to note that, for the majority of the early entrants to KC, their great grandparents and, perhaps in some cases their grandparents, were born and grew up as slaves.

Set up for deprived, underprivileged black boys, the school turned out to be a spectacular success. As reported in this newspaper during its centenary celebrations, KC, led by legendary educator and founding headmaster Bishop Percival Gibson, rapidly became a “powerhouse of academic, athletic and cultural excellence”.

Among sporting disciplines at KC in those early years, cricket was at the pinnacle.

In the decades to follow, KC past students became central to Jamaica’s cricket. And some went all the way to the very top, excelling for the West Indies in Test cricket.

They include Messrs J K Holt Jr, Easton McMorris, OG “Collie” Smith, Michael Holding, Robert Samuels, and Marlon Samuels.

Against that backdrop, we are delighted at news that under the guidance of coach and former Captain Mr Shane Brooks, KC — now better known for its dominance in track athletics and football — is again dedicatedly building a cricket programme from the grass roots up.

We are told that KC won the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association ((ISSA) Under-16 title in 2025 and 2026 and is on target to retain the Under-14 title secured in 2025. Indications are that the best may be yet to come.

As we have often said in this space, cricket is a horrendously expensive sport, more so for schools which routinely struggle to make ends meet. Yet, as St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) has shown by dominating schools’ cricket for decades, much becomes possible with the requisite leadership and commitment.

Our hope is that KC and other schools striving to nurture the sport will stay the course for the greater glory of Jamaica and West Indies cricket.

In that respect, we believe Mr Hubert Williams, People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the White Horses Division in St Thomas, did us great service by his passionate complaint about the neglect of cricket in that eastern parish.

For the record, legendary, tear-away fast bowler Mr Roy Gilchrist is a native of St Thomas and played his early cricket there.

Mr Williams told the recent monthly meeting of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation that cricket there is on “auto pilot” without even a proper cricket ground.

We suspect St Thomas is not alone in that regard.

In the context of cricket and wider sport being among the fastest-growing and more lucrative segments of the global service industry, Mr Williams argues that, “We’re really killing the future of maybe a future millionaire…”

We note yet again that despite badly blotting its record by declining to host the ICC Twenty20 World Cup two years ago, the Jamaican Government has insisted that it is committed to playing its part in bringing cricket “back to its former glory…”

We wait in hope and expectation.