John Milton on the South American Championship
Tony Muro - 21 April 1999

John Milton provides a personal perspective on the recent South American Championships:

• ICC Americas Development Officer John Shepherd suffered from the "Lima belly" and had to miss the main tournament dinner.
• The Guyana (Miami Masters) steroids of triple scotches didn't really seem to work that well.
• All the Argentine team except for one New Zealander is Spanish speaking. Indeed, Spanish is the cricket language in Argentina. Even the scoreboard at Lomas is in Spanish and the laws have been translated into Spanish.
• Lima - perfect cricket weather - 26 degrees every day, and it never rains. Though the sun (from experience) does burn!
• The teams were very different: Argentina young, professional coach who "minded" the players at night, making sure they were not taken on the town by other teams at night. In 1995 Argentina, visiting Brazil, lost after the Argentines had all spent Saturday night on the town. Chile took a young good side and were expected to give Argentina a better fight. Peru were very disappointed not to finish in the first three. Brazil and Venezuela failed to take full sides, and their numbers were made up by non-squad Peruvians.
• If cricket is to be established at all in South America, work must be carried out with the schools. This is what has happened in Argentina. Although it has not been easy, is seems that now cricket is going through a period of expansion.
• If this South American Championship continues, restrictions should be placed on the Argentine team, e.g., fielding only a certain number of their main squad.