By Carlena Knight
Former West Indies and Leeward Islands cricketer, Winston Benjamin is of the opinion that the Combined Schools initiative in the local cricket league should be disbanded.
Benjamin believes that the purpose of the team has been lost and the team now serves no purpose.
“The purpose of Combined Schools was to develop the players who are on the verge of getting into community teams or first-class teams, but you don’t want them to be on the bench just sitting down,” he said.
“I think the problem with Combined Schools right now is that we need someone who is a little bit forceful. You need a sit down with the various stakeholders because you know before time the government played a real pivotal role in determining certain things with Combined Schools but right now, they can disband Combined Schools; it’s not serving its purpose.”
The former Leeward Islands head coach is adamant that a development programme is needed and should be the substitute for the Combined Schools team instead of schools cricket.
“Players can go to the community teams but I think what needs to be done, as I said before, the ABCA, the Antigua Barbuda Cricket Association have no programmes at all; none. We do not have a development programme, we have the Inter-school cricket tournament and that is where everything is done from,” he said.
Benjamin was a guest on the Good Morning JoJo Sports Show on Wednesday when he made these comments.