PM bats for Oval
PORT OF SPAIN
■ Roger Seepersad
roger.seepersad@trinidadexpress.com
WITH more and more cricket being played at the newer Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who is also the chairman of the Caricom Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket, is urging that the Queen's Park Oval not be forgotten and its historic legacy be maintained.
Rowley, in an interview with Andre Baptiste on iSports on i95.5 FM radio on Saturday, said that T&T is hoping to be selected as host of the final of the T20 World Cup next year but was not pleased to hear that the Oval could miss out on hosting matches with the Brian Lara Cricket Academy among the preferred venues being considered.
'I am pretty sure a lot of lobbying will be going on and people will put their best foot forward as we will put ours. One of the things I've heard is that the Queen's Park Oval is not being considered for any of the matches,' Rowley said.
'I don't think that is how it should be. Queen's Park Oval is one of the best cricket grounds in the world and we in T&T should not have it left out of cricket,' he added.
The Oval was established in 1896 and hosted the 100th Test between West Indies and India earlier this year.
It also hosted matches in the 2007 50-over World Cup which was staged in the Caribbean.
Rowley said that unlike the bidding for the 50-over World Cup, he said T&T will be competing to host the final.
'I think we all should compete for it and if we manage to get selected, I'll be extremely happy and if we not selected for the final, I won't cry. I will be disappointed but I want to participate. I don't want to just give it up because it is better utilised elsewhere. So, this Cabinet will compete and we will give a good account of ourselves,' he said of the T&T bid to host matches at the T20 World Cup.
Last month the International Cricket Council confirmed that seven venues in the Caribbean would host the tournament from June 4-30 next year.
Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines would host matches in the Caribbean, while matches will also be hosted in the USA, in Dallas, Florida, and New York.
Meanwhile Cricket West Indies CEO Johnny Grave had indicated that T&T will be one of three venues that are in line to host knockout matches for the T20 World Cup.
During an interview on the Sportsmax Zone, Grave confirmed that separate venues will host the semifinals and final and that Trinidad, Guyana and Barbados are on the short-list out of the ten venues that will host the expanded event in June next year.
'We're not going to have a semifinal and final at the same venue,' Grave said.
'We've agreed with the ICC that there will be separate semifinal venues and a separate venue for the final,' Grave confirmed. 'Only one Queen's Park Oval'
Meanwhile, Rowley said 'There is only one Queen's Park Oval.'
Asked if he knew why the Oval is not being considered to host matches in the T20 World Cup, Rowley said: 'I have not been told why. They have selected the countries that have games but they haven't selected the venues that have games and it is in that I am hearing that the game in Trinidad (matches) will only be at Brian Lara and I don't think it should be like that.'
'I think we have to maintain the legacy value of Queen's Park Oval and Brian Lara as a new venue and we will get the whole country involved,' he added.
The reputation of the Brian Lara Cricket Academy as a top destination for cricket has sky-rocketed since it's belated opening in 2017. It has hosted Caribbean Premier League finals as well as International ODI cricket and first-class regional cricket.
Now Rowley is hoping it can transform the fortunes of West Indies cricket.
'What we have failed to do is to transition from the decline,' Rowley said of West Indies cricket.
'West Indies have tremendous difficulty working its way out of this trough,' he said.
'If we could support club cricket where clubs are encouraging the sport to be played and where the clubs have some element of institutionalism that we support that, I believe that will be a good place to put some government resource,' said Rowley.
'We are talking to the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board and we say how can we help you to strengthen the club level? Who is playing club cricket? What role could a small amount of government input play? How do you identify talent in the school system? We have an answer for that and we are not inventing any wheel here,' Rowley explained.
He said the vision of building of the Brian Lara Academy was meant to treat with the issue of developing talent.
'I think it may very well be that one of the solutions is to operationalise the Brian Lara Academy. How we do that, we have to think it through properly and see what role the Government will play, what role Cricket West Indies will play.'
He said the Academy should function as a school where you go for development.
'I am here talking about picking up the latent talent and it has to be wider than Trinidad and Tobago. What it will do is provide the support base for the identification and the raising of that talent. And if some public resources go into it, it can only be for the good.' 'Players like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara and Garry Sobers come around once in a every generation but there are many tens of other players who play the game to support those stars and you need to have a constant flow of people coming in with the latent talent and you develop it,' he explained.
'If there is talent, let that talent be given the opportunity to develop. Let it not be smothered because the systems are not in place, the behaviour of the management is not in place, the resource base wasn't there. We have to have a plan,' he added.
CHECK-UP: Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, seated, gets his pressure taken during yesterday's A Grand Health Fair at the Carenage Boys' Government Primary School. The event was jointly hosted by Rowley, the Diego Martin West MP, and the Carenage Seventh-Day Adventist Church. -Photo: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
