By Tony Cozier
Sir Hilary Beckles asserts, in Sunday’s Stabroek News (letter pages), that the concept of his Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) had “its beginnings in what Sir Frank Worrell had envisioned decades ago.”
Surely Sir Frank’s vision – and that of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in embracing it – was of a team of valid student cricketers truly representative of all the campuses and colleges in the region, not one so utterly and consistently dominated by players from one island, Barbados, and one campus, Cave Hill, of which Sir Hilary is Principal, which also hosts all CCC’s “home” matches to the exclusion of other available venues.
Sir Frank’s proposal can, indeed, have a positive impact on West Indies cricket but not in the way it has been transformed in his name.
Three years into its participation in all WICB competitions, CCC teams still comprised nine of the 12 players from Cave Hill and/or Barbados in the recent WICB T20 and ten of the 16 in the 2010 regional first-class season.
Among them was Floyd Reifer, aged 37, according to Sir Hilary “a natural leader” and “a model mentor” but filling a place that should be occupied by a promising student, not the coach.
Perhaps CCC will, sooner rather than later, revert to its original purpose, even as soon as the WICB regional limited-overs series in October.
Sir Hilary, a director of the WICB in addition to his many other roles, charges me with “an orgy of negativity” for daring to point out such selection imbalances and declares that my “written cricket commentaries for some time have fallen short of what West Indies cricket now needs”.
What West Indies cricket doesn’t need now is a virtual Barbados second team parading under some other name in its major tournaments. And it can certainly do without the nepotism and self-glorification for which so many of those in prominent positions of power use the game.
