By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies fast bowler Kenneth Benjamin is calling on the local cricket association to step up and take responsibility for the development of the game here in Antigua and Barbuda before considering any calls to compete separately from the Leeward Islands entity.
His call comes amid debate over whether Antigua and Barbuda should seek to play as a stand-alone team in regional youth tournaments, which would see the twin-island state sever ties with the Leeward Islands Cricket Board (LICB) at the junior stage.
“We should. I believe Antigua should try and play youth cricket on their own, but then Cricket West Indies is here and they’re going to say, ‘But you don’t even have a youth programme, so how are we going to just put you in and just hope you pick up a couple of guys here? How sustainable is it going to be?’
“I agree with you that we should be thinking about this, but first we have to organise things on the ground. We have to have under-13 boys and girls, under-15 for clubs and maybe zonal under-17 and under-19 and let Cricket West Indies see that we have a pathway, that we have a sustainable programme that will continue to develop youth players over and over and over,” he said.
Benjamin pointed to similar programmes that have been implemented in other islands and the level of success they have seen at the youth level.
“You see, Barbados at the youth level is very good, and they have a sustainable programme. When they were here, the teams for the under-19 boys and girls, I spoke to the coaches and all; Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Windward Islands — they all have cricket ops in all of the little islands. Windward Islands, in all the little islands, they have a cricket operations officer. We don’t have anybody here responsible for cricket development in Antigua from the cricket association,” he said.
In 2022, ABCA President Leon Rodney called for closer collaboration with the Ministry of Sports and key stakeholders to improve local youth competitions, practice facilities and holistic cricket development.
Rodney’s call came ahead of the body’s election in which Rodney was re-elected unopposed.
Benjamin calls for stronger youth cricket pathway before stand-alone bid
