Tanya Lee | Oh, No, President Cameron!

When I opened The Gleaner last Sunday and saw the headline "Too many female PE teachers hurting cricket, says Cameron", I almost fell from my chair in disbelief. My immediate thought was that our CWI president was being misquoted. My next thought was they had the wrong president; surely they meant 'the Donald'. While both gentlemen have a penchant for courting controversy with their eyebrow-raising pronouncements, this is a huge misstep.

As I continued reading, I was further floored. The president of West Indies Cricket, the top man in the job, who presides over the affairs of our winning women's cricket team, the current World T20 Champions, was blaming the demise of West Indies cricket on women!

Cameron said specifically:

"Firstly, we only have female PE (physical education) teachers, which is a problem. Most of them don't know cricket. The game of cricket is very complicated. They don't know the history and neither are they interested ... . When we went to school, most of our PE teachers, if not all, were male."

This comment, on the face of it, is incorrect. Permit me to state three specific things that are incorrect here:

1. The statement is unfounded. There is no data that support the absolute broad-brush that there are only female PE teachers in Jamaica. PE teachers in Jamaica, or anywhere in the world for that matter, are not exclusively women or men.

There are more female PE teachers now than when Mr Cameron went to school, yes. There are more women now in traditional male roles across many fields, including sports. With gender biases being eroded now, there are more women in traditional male roles. There are more female referees, more female bus drivers, more female doctors, more female politicians, more female managers. Women have assumed many roles across many spheres in our society.

LUDICROUS SUGGESTION

2. Furthermore, to suggest that PE teachers in Jamaica do not understand, know the history of, or have an interest in the game of cricket is ludicrous. Cricket is part of the curriculum set by the ministry, and taught at GC Foster College, for trained PE teachers. Is Mr Cameron suggesting that the PE teachers across schools in Jamaica are not qualified? Did Mr Cameron canvas the PE teachers across Jamaica, and did the females state a disinterest in cricket? Did he also canvas the males, and did they state an interest in cricket? If this was not done, on what basis could Mr Cameron posit that the male would be better suited to teach physical education? There is nothing that exempts women from understanding the sport of cricket.

3. Mr Cameron seems misinformed about the role of the PE teacher in developing cricketers. PE teachers teach the fundamentals of the game, the basic tenets of batting, fielding and bowling, but the 40 minutes to one hour afforded to PE classes each week does not lend itself to developing cricketers, footballers, or track stars, for that matter. If a child wishes to become advanced in a specific sport, this is typically done outside of PE. If Mr Cameron canvasses most of his cricketers, he will find that they learned and developed interest in the sport through the home and the community. That is why schools that excel in sports have specific coaches assigned to specific sports. Parents, clubs, and school sports programmes typically explore specialised activities. It starts, and grows, in the home and the community and through specialised coaching, not necessarily in a PE class.

I suppose our esteemed CWI president would be surprised to learn that Chris Gayle was taught the game of cricket by a female PE teacher at Rollington Town Primary. Chris Gayle said his "first proper cricket coach" was "the fantastic Miss Hamilton", who he describes as a "seriously fast bowler". Miss Hamilton was such a great influence on Chris Gayle's career that he included her in his biography.

But what Mr Cameron has presented is the opportunity for us to have a discussion around how we can increase participation and interest in cricket at the junior level. I am not convinced that it is the PE teacher that creates the appetite for participation in sports. It has more to do with the home. Irrespective of Chris Gayle's teacher, he grew up beside Kensington and had an older brother, who played cricket. The love for, and interest in cricket among children and teens grows through increased community and home exposure to cricket.