CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

A period of counselling has been recommended for two young West Indies players. One by the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) for Sulieman Benn, the other by West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for Runako Morton, the Nevis Leeward Islands cricketer.

The sessions have been arranged to help both with their personal development. I am hopeful they will emerge from this apparent rocky period in their lives with flying colours because I believe that if the authorities didn't recognise some remedial features in them no effort would have been made to help get their career back on track.

Both cases again prove that our sportsmen and women have to be prepared for life on and off the field. Talent alone may not be enough especially at a time when there appears to be more pressure placed on sports personalities of this era than those of the past.

They are faced with a greater intrusion and reporting of their activities and very little can be swept under the carpet without the probing media knowing. That sort of scrutiny can break the strongest will.

I well remember when Brian Lara experienced a career slump in the mid-1990s conceded that he wasn't prepared for the level of success he was enjoying at the time.

That is when I thought the WICB woke up and realised that they should put more emphasis on personal development, etiquette and the like. Indeed, these are integral components of the course at the Shell Cricket Academy in Grenada.

In fact, it appears that the time has long past for sporting organisations to revisit the way they handle player development. Individuals should be versed in several aspects of life other than the sport they play before they reach the national level. It has to begin at the community and club stage.

But they must have people well equipped with the appropiate skills to point them in the right direction.

As a result we may have reached the point where sports administrators will have to be trained in areas like sociology and psychology to help them manage effectively those that might require extra assistance.

The serious administrator has to accept that his role has now evolved into that of a mentor. Years ago the likes of the late Honor Skinner and Kathy Harper-Hall were like confidants and even foster mothers.

People of this calibre are needed more than ever because the extended family structure is not as solid as it used to be, making supplementary support services extremely vital.

Top sportsmen with one problem or another should not be allowed to become part of the lost generation, at least not without some effort to save them. This, of course, has to be a two-way street because they must be receptive to whatever help is being offered.

I don't believe, though, that every case will be a success because inevitably some will fall by the wayside no matter what you do but if we can manage to save one we have done a great job.

Evenso, I see it as a duty of sports administrators to put a system in place to help those who recognise they have a problem and having received that help might turn out to be better people, fulfilling their potential and becoming credits to themselves and their country.

© The Barbados Nation