| Dear Trainers/Coaches: The recent 13 and Under Cricket Tournament concluded just over a week ago in St. Kitts. Previously, the tournament lasted two weeks, but this year it lasted only one week because several other islands seemingly found it financially difficult to send a team, or perhaps did not have a team which they thought was ready for inter-island competition. |
| The Anguilla team was present! Eighteen children were chosen to participate and about 5 matches plus other practice games were played. However, the number of games played by some children as opposed to those played by others seemed somewhat unbalanced. Some children were picked to play almost all the time while others frustratingly warmed the bench. If these un-picked boys were such incompetent players why were they allowed to go in the first place? Why was one child chosen over another so much of the time? The idea that some kind of influence was being exerted unfairly could easily come to mind! The enthusiasm of these ‘left out’ children is crushed and they could certainly lose interest in the game. The Anguilla team could hardly do any worse than they did so why not change the line- up and give another boy a chance? These young aspiring cricketers did not train to be ‘bench warmers’! They could do that without weeks of practice, or parents taking them back and forth to the playing field which, in retrospect, now seems to have been a waste of time. Give all our children an even chance or perhaps next year Anguilla may be one of the islands that finds itself unable to present a team for the tournament! Thank you A Cricket Fan |
