By Neto Baptiste
Legendary West Indies fast bowler and one of four knighted former players here, Sir Andy Roberts, is urging players to use what they have, saying they must stop blaming poor performances on subpar or lack of adequate facilities.
In an interview with Observer media, Sir Andy agreed that it is always nice to have better facilities at one’s disposal but reminded players that real improvement comes with hard work and dedication to one’s craft and that governments may not be in a financial position to produce and maintain first class facilities.
“We are not a wealthy country but what I think is that people can do better with the little that we have, because when we were coming up we had nothing.
“What we had was a love for the game and that is supposed to inspire you over the facilities because the facilities don’t make you but you have to make yourself to be what you want to be.
“I hear so much talk about how we need facilities and yes we do but what we need is more people to work at their craft than to worry about facilities,” he said.
The iconic Antiguan recently condemned the current state of the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG), stating that he is unwilling to visit the historic venue.
Sir Andy also questioned the critical thinking of decision makers when it comes to sports, pointing to a decision to expend funds on the refurbishing of the YASCO Sports Complex rather than investing in a new multipurpose facility.
“Instead of going back to build at YASCO, there is so much lands around that we could have built a multi-sports facility somewhere; just find the land that accommodates track and field and international football.
“We could build a stadium for that and that is what we should have done instead of spending the money back at YASCO because you can’t develop around YASCO, so you go out because you can develop outside,” he said. The former bowler claimed 202 wickets in 47 Tests and 87 victims in 56 ODI matches during his career which spanned 1974 to 1983.