(Trinidad Guardian) In an effort to upgrade the skills of local curators, the T&T Cricket Board recently conducted a course for several groundsmen throughout the country.
The successful participants were rewarded with certificates and have expressed pleasure with getting the opportunity to further enhance their capabilities in this important element of the game of cricket.
According to Dr Allen Sammy, first vice-president of the T&TCB, the curators comprise the third part of a three-pronged reform of the game currently being undertaken by the Azim Bassarath led administration.
Dr Sammy, one of the founding fathers of the T&TCB, said youth development tops the list of initiatives and referred to the most recent crop of inductees in the National Gas Company (NGC) sponsored youth academy who he said “still play for emotion rather than economics.”
The former T&T director on the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said the second part of the reform package has to do with the two-day game which the T&TCB has reintroduced at the national level when it was recognised that there was a regional-wide problem affecting batters who were not spending enough time in the middle.
And the third element of the revolutionary changes in local cricket has to do with the upgrade and refreshing of the skills of the local curators tasked with preparing pitches which have been deteriorating badly over the years.
“We therefore need to focus on improving the quality of our pitches and we have some good people, qualified and enthusiastic about lending their expertise to improve the standards in this specialised field,” said Dr Sammy.
Among those who have played a great role in educating and improving the curators are Shaker Mano, now the senior curator at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT); “Trini” Persad, who acted as his assistant; Jimmy Manbodh, widely regarded as a veteran, and other T&TCB staff who he said were admirably managed by Dudnath Ramkessoon, Chief Operations Officer of the T&TCB, and Chief Executive Officer Suruj Ragoonath.
The successful curators were: Bhan Rampersad, Kilickdarie Pulchan and Dexter Nolan of the NCC; Davendra Singh, Dhanraj Ramroop, Ishwar Ramnath, Lakshman Lochan, Nizamodeen Mohammed, Nazeer Habib, Ramdath Sankar; Remy Manbodh described as a “tutor,” Ronald Peters, and Ronnie Lochan.
