By Neto Baptiste
President of the Liberta Blackhawks and former West Indies fast bowler, Kenneth Benjamin, believes that a lack of planning and some carelessness on the part of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), may have resulted in the subpar standard witnessed on return to the association’s two day competition over the weekend.
Scores were generally low over the weekend with the highest being 272 for six declared by Empire Nation in their second innings against Rising Sun, while Jennings Tigers were bowled out for 45 by Bolans Blasters. One team, Bethesda Golden Eagles, even failed to turn out for their clash against All Saint Pythons with reports indicating that they could not find enough players to field a team.
Benjamin said that allowing the introduction of the Joma Caribbean T10 right after the Cool & Smooth T20 Explosion was a mistake.
“When you look at the way the cricket association has allowed the two day game to be eroded because there was the T20 that was planned, and then all of a sudden this T10 popped up, and I would sort to want to hold the cricket association responsible for that because it was short [notice] and they didn’t know, and when you looked at the amount of teams that were short [for the two day matches] and one team didn’t show up because they had four teams playing on Friday [in the T10] and the association didn’t give the break, at the end of the day, it is the players who are suffering,” he said.
Benjamin, who also doubles as a coach with the Blackhawks, made it clear he is not against the hosting of the T10 but added that it should not be allowed to interrupt the staging of other important formats.
“The T10 is good, and the more of it the people play thy will understand it more and you may see scores start to improve, but there has to be a time and place for everything. It can’t be in the middle of the most important aspect of cricket, the two day cricket where we will seek development that we are going to chop and change and cut and fit. There has to be a time when somebody puts their foot down and say hell no, this is not happening now,” he said.
The former player also highlighted that the unplanned-for T10 competition had a negative impact on the quality of pitches at some venues.
“I know the one at New Winthorpes, one of the umpires said it was the worst pitch he had ever seen, and the one at Factory was atrocious and the umpires should have abandoned the game, I am telling you honestly. The thing about it is that, when you have these players playing every day for the last two and a half weeks or so, nobody goes to their field because they are playing in the afternoons, so nobody prepares the pitch, and even Friday, they had to go because you had four teams playing and so when you look at it, there is no time between Thursday and Saturday to prepare the pitches properly, and so when you look at the scores there is nothing at all to write home about,” Benjamin said.
Six franchises, comprising all local players, competed in the Joma Caribbean T10 which bowled off on May 2 and ended on May 12 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
The competing franchises were Hawksbills, Rockets, Renegades, Rangers, Chargers, and Pacers.
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