Member of the Opposition in Anguilla, Mr. Cardigan Connor, says the proposed athletic track at the Ronald Webster Park makes no sense.
He was at the time co-hosting the Anguilla United Front’s Radio Anguilla programme “Just the Facts” on Monday, April 25, with the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge. She said she understood that the proposal involved an entity which would provide the necessary funding for the athletic track, but there was a requirement that it must be somewhere that is currently being used as a track and field – and that such a place was the James Ronald Webster Park. She asked Mr. Connor for his comments as someone who has been involved in cricket. “I am very curious in terms of your views on this proposal,” the Opposition Leader remarked.
“Don’t upset me too early, Cora,” Mr. Connor replied. “The thing that the Government needs to understand is that the Sydney Cricket Ground [was designed to accommodate] Rugby League; and the Melbourne Cricket Ground…to host Australian Football. But the Webster Park is a cricket ground and the athletes run on the cricket out field. It is not an athletics track. It means the two cannot go together and, with the restrictions that we have in Anguilla, how can we make this work to accommodate each other? You get disappointed when you allow people within your space, and they want to put you out. With the recognition we have received in the Caribbean for the pitch we have prepared, and the cricketers we have contributed to the West Indies, the park was built with the concept of cricket – not a track and field…It is said that there are no crazy ideas; but, to me, this proposal [to have a track and field on the Webster Park] does not make sense.”
Mr. Connor made the point that one must be careful putting one sport against another. “You can cut a 400 track anywhere in Anguilla, and you can run on it and say this is an existing track, but don’t come on the cricket field and say we want to take it over because somebody is giving us a handout,” he stated.
Mr. Connor recalled leaving Anguilla at the age of 15, not for cricket, but was given opportunities in England and Australia to return to Anguilla because there was an issue here where cricket seemed to be dying in its schools. That was where he started in the primary schools, and a number of students received cricket scholarships.
Mrs Richardson-Hodge noted that during her service in the previous AUF Government, provision was made to have an athletic track built on part of the 17 acres of land where the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School is now located. She said since then the current Government appeared to have made a compromise – to have the athletic track on the Webster Park which was not an acceptable and good idea.
