Tony Becca - FROM THE BOUNDARY LAST WEEKEND'S Jamaica Double Wicket Tournament at Kaiser was a disappointment as far as spectator support was concerned. It was so disappointing that a number of the Jamaica Cricket Association's directors are suggesting that it is a waste of time and money and that it should be scrapped.
There are those, however, who believe that it is a good idea which it is so they should continue with it. The thing to do is to make it more attractive to the spectators and to do so the best players in the region should be among the participants and the field-placing should not be as defensive as the past two years.
Based on what happened this weekend, however, the first thing the directors should do is get the top Jamaican players to play in the tournament.
To do that, however, they will have to be better organised.
Of the 12 teams listed to participate, one did not, and but for a late change, it could have been two.
Jamaica Black was the team that did not show up, and the organisers were forced to bring in two players and to shuffle the players between Jamaica Green and Jamaica Gold.
The reason for all that was because Christopher Gayle and Marlon Samuels representing Jamaica Black, and Wavell Hinds and Ricardo Powell - representing Jamaica Green were absent.
Jamaica Black was eventually changed to Gayle and Hinds because they were out together and were expected to turn up late. Jamaica Green, originally listed to be represented by Hinds and Powell and then changed to Hinds and Gareth Breese, was again changed to Breese and Lorenzo Ingram, who was called in at the last moment. Jamaica Gold, originally Breese and David Bernard Jnr., was changed to Bernard and Brenton Parchment, and they went on to win the tournament.
DIRECTORS MAD
Not surprisingly, the organisers, including directors, were hopping mad.
According to them, the players were informed of the tournament and their no-show was once again a demonstration of their lack of respect for the association and their lack of respect for Jamaica's cricket.
Not so, say the players. According to them, certainly according to Hinds, they were told in a letter that they were selected to play but they received the letter only three days before the tournament, and they had already committed themselves to be elsewhere.
Gayle and Hinds were committed to attend a promotional shoot in Montego Bay for West Indies sponsors Cable & Wireless, they were told of the shoot, organised by the West Indies Board, long ago, and it ended after mid-day on Saturday the first day of the tournament.
As far as Samuels and Powell were concerned, one was also committed and one simply could not make it not for a double wicket tournament.
Samuels, Gayle, Hinds and other national players were asked a month ago to play in a match for Jerome Taylor on Sunday the final day of the tournament, and they had said yes.
Powell, who went home to Trinidad on Friday, had no such obligation.
The young man simply had to be with his wife who is expecting their first child. He was never going to play, and according to members of the Board, despite repeated attempts to get him to play, he had made his position clear.
If the players really were not informed until three days before the tournament, if, despite previous commitments, they were expected to drop everything and run to Kaiser, if Powell was expected to stay in Jamaica for a double wicket tournament despite his obligation as a husband, then, certainly this time around, it is not the players who have no respect for the Association or for Jamaica's cricket.
LITTLE RESPECT FOR PLAYERS
If what the players have said is true, and based on the experience of the clubs and parishes re correspondence from the JCA, it does seem that it is true, then it is the Board, certainly this time around, that has demonstrated little or no respect for the players.
The JCA directors, the organisers, some of them, should remember that respect wins respect.
Gayle, Hinds and Samuels were all at the tournament on Saturday afternoon, and as far as the fans were concerned - certainly those who gathered around them talking cricket, their presence, even though they were not playing, showed that they respect Jamaica's cricket and that if they could have played, they would have played.
