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After
the adrenaline of qualifying for the 2003 World Cup, what now?
It seems
to me that the elements of preparation do exist. We have an Under-19 team,
efforts are being made to place an Under-23 team in the Toronto
and District Premier league and there are many individuals and clubs who
are quite ardent about junior development. Quite plainly lacking here is
the visibility of a long-term plan in the public eye to bring these variant
parts together to a potent viable force.
Many criticisms
being about the quality of the players; undoubtedly this will always exist.
Would you select a batsman, bowler or all rounder? These are never ending
arguments. To put some end to this, I would like to see is the skeleton
of a long-term plan, from the administration, to bring forward our latent
talents. Does it not stand to reason that if there are concerns over who
makes our National Team, then we have talented players lurking in the
shadows waiting to be discovered?
The
case for selection is a tenuous one and moreso because of the apparent
lack of professionalism by certain administrators. Immediately what comes
to mind is the lack of a physiotherapist for the Under 19 World Cup, and
by all accounts it appears that the senior America’s
cup team will also be so lacking.
In
the few paragraphs above I have outlined the elements of poor strategic
planning. I am well aware that
there are individuals who are well qualified and able to train a team
to international standard but without the appropriate schema, they are
useless.
Imagine
for a moment that you have an army with highly skilled soldiers trying
to achieve a goal, and you merely rush your troops to the front without
first:
- Planning
the troop movements
- Allocating
your resources to maximize your gains
- Activating
and mobilizing your reserves
- Having
public support and faith in the central command
- Examining
the consequences of loss/victory.
Failure
is then assured. True, there may
be heroic individuals standing out but overall the operation will be a
loss. I can see in the overall picture of Canadian Cricket that the Generals
are perhaps more concerned with appearances rather than results.
My
friends, we are a fledgling country in the world of Cricket. We should
accept that we going to have a long and bloody fight to achieve recognition.
However, this should serve to provide our juniors with the steel they
need to hold the line. Yet, this cannot be achieved without a strong,
centralized plan. I am leery that such a plan exists. If it does then
the administration is a little shoddy.
As
I have mentioned in my previous writing. The resources do exist in our
country but for reasons unknown they are not harnessed. Argue that we
have short summers, but the days are long. Etobicoke hosts the only indoor
training facility in Canada,
while this training is not enough for developing ODI players but I see
a man who, in his efforts did something to raise our internal standards
rather than merely ruminating about it.
The
building blocks are there. We have to use them. To complicate matters
further, within 15 minutes drive from my home there exists: 10 high school
athletic fields, 5 professional standard gyms, kilometers of cross country
trails and 1 cricket club housed on a decent pitch. So, with all those facilities within a short
distance, can anyone truly say we cannot develop competitive athletes?
My
friends let us take full advantage of this. Let us make our opinions known
that we will no longer stand by and watch as haphazard planning further
embarrasses the nation. We must drive towards professionalism, train and
encourage our youths and above all, we must not give up. This is our goal
and nothing must stop us from reaching it.
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