Benjamin warns of cricket development crisis

By Neto Baptiste
Former West Indies fast bowler Winston Benjamin has called for a complete overhaul of schoolboy cricket and the introduction of a national development pathway by the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association.
Benjamin, who heads the Grassroots Cricket Academy, said unless there is a fundamental change in the way young players are identified and developed, Antigua and Barbuda could face serious challenges producing top-class cricketers.
“By the time you get to secondary school, 11, 12, and if your education is maybe above the normal, you get in at 10, 11. By the time you hit 15 and start to understand the game, you’re out of secondary school and that’s it for you until you can bridge the gap in a first-class team or you go to a club and they have the patience to develop you, so it’s not as easy as that. Hence the reason why I’m saying, and I’m going to keep saying it, we are doing an injustice to our youth, not only in terms of school cricket, but our national programme needs to be revamped, needs to be looked at seriously,” he said.
Benjamin emphasised the need to identify talented players at a much earlier age, which would allow coaches to better map their development.
“Unless we get into the primary school from grade one until you reach grade six because I could just say from grade one, you’re basically teaching them how to hold the bat, letting them have fun. Grade two, you’re teaching them how to stand up and stand up properly, letting them have fun,” he said.
“Grade three and four, you start to teach them because now, the concentration span is a little bit better so by the time they reach grade five and grade six and they’re starting to understand the game and by the time they reach secondary school, you’re now going into a much deeper skill set and skill acquisition and all of that. When you get a 12-year-old or a 15-year-old who is already in secondary school, who never played cricket before, come on, after all, only Jesus can create miracles. Man only talks, but man can’t create a miracle,” the former player added.
Another former West Indies fast bowler, Kenneth Benjamin, recently expressed similar sentiments, calling on the local association to get serious about the development and administration of the sport.