Rodney Laments Lack Of Opportunities For Coaches

President of the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA), Leon “Kuma” Rodney, has cried foul after none of the country’s coaches were accepted into a Level 3 coaching course slated to start here at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground on Wednesday.
The course, being held under the auspices of Cricket West Indies (CWI), is designed to move Level 2 coaches to Level 3 certification.
Revealing there are no Level 2 coaches on island, Rodney believes that the regional board is to be blamed as they failed to provide opportunities for coaches here and within the Leeward Islands to move to the next level.
“The last communication was that there was a hold-up between the University of the West Indies which has something to do with that, so a lot of Level 1 coaches in Antigua could not have gotten the opportunity to move to Level 2,” he said.
“My concern is, and I have written to the West Indies cricket board saying that we understand you should have Level 1 or 2 to go to Level 3, but we are saying that you did not provide the opportunity over a
long period of time for the coaches here in the Leewards to get to Level 2 in order to get to the Level 3 so we are saying that given the experience of some of the coaches who would have worked from club level, national level, sub-regional and regional level, those coaches holding level 1 should be given an opportunity to do the Level 3,” he added.
Asked why the necessary preparations were not made to have Level 1 coaches move to Level 3, Rodney said the ABCA has been trying for some time without success.
“I have been fighting this situation for well over 10 years via the cricket
association and even Leeward Islands Cricket Board, but the fault must be with the board (WICB) because we never had the Level 2 programme available,”
“After a while they said that they would be changing the programme and I think they went to the Australia programme which never materialised and then something else was supposed to have happened in Jamaica. However, I’ve been pushing even when Enoch Lewis was president [of the ABCA] that we need to get a Level 2 so that the guys can move up and that when it comes to Level 3 they could get the opportunity,” he said. 
Reports are that St. Kitts and Nevis’ Stuart Williams is the lone sub-regional coach doing the Level 3 course.
Former West Indies fast bowler and newly appointed head coach of the Leeward Islands Hurricanes, Winston Benjamin, gained Level 3 certification after attending a WICB programme held in Barbados in January of 2016.