gmsports@guardian.co.tt
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that discussions have started to have the Brian Lara Cricket Academy (BLCA) fully operationalised as an academy.
On Tuesday, photos were circulated on social media showing Dr Rowley meeting with former West Indies Limited Overs and T20 captain, Kieron Pollard and former WIPA President, Dinanath Ramnarine, in what appeared to be a cricket conversation.
However, during a post-cabinet press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, in St Ann’s yesterday, the prime minister, who is the current chairman of the Caricom Cricket Committee, when questioned about the topic of discussion between the trio said that not much cricket was spoken. He said that he met with a couple of cricketers as a sidebar.
Completed in 2017, the BLCA was supposed to have been completed in 2007 and should have been used as a warm-up venue for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup when the West Indies played host to cricket’s showpiece event.
T&T hosted group matches involving India at the Queen’s Park Oval.
When former prime minister Patrick Manning held talks with Brian Lara to discuss a way forward for the new facility, the secondary purpose of the venue was to serve as an academy that would nurture the growth of future cricketers to follow in the footsteps of the player in which the academy is named.
The venue has since hosted four Caribbean Premier League finals, as well as One Day Internationals and T20 internationals starting in 2022, becoming the latest international venue in the Caribbean.
However, according to the prime minister, it is time the put the ‘academy’ in the name.
“The Brian Lara Stadium was there was meant to be an academy,” Dr Rowley told the Post Cabinet Media briefing.
“It has been used as a cricket ground, hosting matches which have been quite successful. But the concept of the Academy has never been operationalised.”
Dr Rowley said the need for the academy had become greater over the years. He said, “The cricketing world is now a major sporting business, creating huge opportunities for individuals and nations. Secondly, West Indies cricket has declined precipitously in recent times, and there’s a role for governments to prevent West Indies cricket from becoming obsolete.”
Since the BLCA was been handed over to the custody of the people of T&T, the pristine venue has hosted four T20 internationals and one One Day International between West Indies and India in 2022 and 2023.
BLCA is also set to host England in December for two T20 international matches. However, Dr Rowley noted, the ‘academy’ has not been operationalised.
“And that’s one of the discussions that we would look at going forward, both for our people at home and for the regional development of the game as well,” he said.
Cricket West Indies Vice President and Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board President Azim Bassarath told Guardian Media Sports yesterday that he was in full support of the prime minister.
Bassarath said, “Trinidad and Tobago, as usual, will be setting the peace and you know, guiding the other Caribbean islands in that direction. And I think that the Prime Minister is sitting in the right position now being chairman of the current Caricom cricket committee.”
He believes that activating the academy would benefit West Indies cricket.
“And also, this may be the starting point of taking West Indies cricket where all of us really want it to be,” he said.
Brian Lara has represented the West Indies in 131 Tests and scored 11,593 runs with a high score of 400 not out. The former West Indies captain represented the West Indies in a further 299 One Day Internationals scoring 19 hundreds in his successful career.
Lara, “the King of Port of Spain”, was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2012 at the awards ceremony held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
At a press conference at the conclusion of the Forty-Fifth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom in T&T in July, the Dominican Prime Minister also announced the appointment of Dr h Rowley, as Chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Cricket.
Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr the Hon Ralph Gonsalves, and former Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr. the Hon Keith Mitchell, were previous chairmen of the cricket sub-committee.