NEWS OF THE Jamaica Cricket Association's (JCA) proposal to establish a semi-professional cricket league is great news.
As far as I am concerned, such a league would most certainly have a positive impact on the growth, development and expansion of the game especially in rural Jamaica.
It is no secret, outside of Kingston, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth and possibly Manchester, quality cricket is fast becoming a dying art.
In some parishes, except for the 'curry goat' version of the game, which is geared more towards short-term entertainment than long-term development, cricket has fallen off the radar.
I can distinctly remember back in the 1970s and 80s when western Jamaica's cricket was alive and vibrant. Going out to watch club and parish matches was an integral part of life on the weekends.
I remember some club matches in St. James attracting better spectator support than some of the international games played in recent years.
As a schoolboy living in Trelawny, back in the mid-1970s, many of my Saturdays were spent at venues such as Watson Taylor Park (Lucea) the Frome Sports Ground (Westmoreland), the Elliston-Wakeland Youth Centre (Falmouth) and Jarrett Park (Montego Bay), watching my childhood idols, Charlie Brown and Joseph Kirkpatrick, competing against the region's best in parish and club cricket.
Based on my experience, in regards to seeing well-structured cricket working in the past, I strongly suspect a semi-professional set-up, along the lines of the Wray & Nephew Premier League format used in football, has the potential to ignite the kind of passion gone out of local cricket.
I believe it could enjoy as much success as football has been enjoying in recent years.
NEW TALENT
An all-island semi-professional cricket league would be the perfect way to identify and develop new talent. In addition to offering cricketers a stipend as encouragement to stay in the game, regular action in a well-structured competition must be the ideal way for a young cricketer to improve his skills.
For semi-professional cricket to succeed in Jamaica, venues will have to be improved as gate receipts and spectator comfort will definitely become a part of the equation.
If we don't develop the required infrastructure for fans to pay, I don't believe we will get more than token support. Without quality support, we won't be able to generate the required revenue to pay the players.
I am sure that if the venues in rural Jamaica were developed so they could function effectively as paying venues, it would further open the door to the decentralisation of national cricket.
Whereas St. Ann, St. Elizabeth and St. James, which all have quality venues, are now the only rural parishes hosting international cricket, I am sure with better venues, the other parishes would stand a good chance of getting games too.
Looking at all the benefits a semi-professional league would bring, I believe the opportunity for continuity is best.
A vast number of our talented cricketers, who came up through the school system, have fallen by the wayside, faced with the choice of playing free cricket and making something out of their lives, they settle with the latter.
I believe if a semi-professional cricket league is able to do what football has done for Jamaica in terms of uncovering talents such as Durrant 'Tatty' Brown, Theodore Whitmore, Winston Anglin and the many other national players that did not come to prominence through the school system, whatever level of investment that goes into it would be money well spent.
I am in total support of the establishment of a semi-professional league and I do hope the JCA will quickly lift this proposal off the drawing board and make it a reality.
Now is as good a time as ever to start as we could benefit from the momentum we should gain from hosting games in the 2007 World Cup.
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