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Some practices not in keeping with the best spirit of the game have crept into the Sir Garfield Sobers International Cricket Competition.

Young cricketers are behaving badly and for the first time, we are hearing the word sledging being used in this competition, said organiser Don Gooding after this years tournament ended last week.

That is the exact opposite of what we want. We want them to come and play in the manner Sir Garfield Sobers would have played.

It was Gooding who presented the concept of an international tournament to the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA).

Back in 1986, Gooding, then associated with Budget Travel Ltd., brought 20 coaches from England to tour the islands facilities and conduct a few coaching clinics. They decided it would be good for both sides to have a tournament where the English school teams played against the local teams.

That year, we formed a committee and I wrote a letter to then Director of Tourism Tony Arthur asking if he would give his support to the festival and contact Sir Garfield Sobers to see if we could use his name. The answer was yes to both.

That year, 18 teams took part in the tournament. This year, there were 16 schools and Gooding said that it might be time to review the direction of the competition.

This year all was not well because they had to compete with the Nortel Under-19 and the BET Under-15 competitions, forcing the Sobers tourney to some of the lesser grounds.

There has been some resistance to that (from the teams). They take it seriously. It is a major event and they want the best facilities, Gooding said. If they do not get that, they are not going to come again.

He also said that the timing of the tournament would have to be looked at because the school year in England was changing to a four-term system which means that the holidays were getting shorter.

Teams from South Africa and Zimbabwe are expected to be in next years competition.

Gooding is exploring the idea of a multi-sports package where 40-50-member school teams will come to play hockey, cricket, football and netball and the school choirs will also come down.

There was a pilot project a few weeks ago with the King Edward VII School from Surrey and the Sherbourne Jazz Band, both of which were felt to be successful and this is the springboard which may launch the multi-sports festival.