Tony Becca | What Sabina Park needs is some good cricket

Nothing in life teaches like experience, at least as far as it prevents, or should prevent, one from making the same mistakes, or saying the same things over and over.

Garth Williams, the newly appointed communications and marketing manager of the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA), recently made public some of the association’s plans, or his own plans, to make Sabina Park into a profitable venue, and in doing so, did nothing more than step out of bounds and also rehash some suggestions of the past and presented them like some wonder drug.

I don’t know if I read it correctly, but Williams was quoted in The Gleaner of December 17 last year as saying, “We have given consideration, only given consideration, as there’s no direction yet – can we rename Sabina Park?”

Apart from the talk of replay screens, a sports lounger, and a museum, all coming from the 2007 World Cup, there is also talk of a Sabina Inn, a walking and jogging track around the cricket field, and, obviously in Williams’ opinion, secure parking at Sabina Park.

As said many times leading up to World Cup 2007, a new-look Sabina Park would fit into the Government’s plan to redevelop downtown Kingston, especially after Kingston Club’s own plans to get a first-class restaurant going in the near future.

So far, nothing, or hardly anything, has happened to improve the image of Sabina Park.

The dream of Williams is estimated by him to cost some J$25 million and will take the JCA’s annual earnings from two million to four million a year to some $40 million to $50 million dollars a year, hopefully, within the next 10 years.

“We already have the space. What it needs now are some minor renovations and then to put the marketing behind it to attract people into the space,” said an excited Williams.

The JCA may have the space, or some space, but unless they have worked out a deal to do so, and they have the cash and the will to do so, they cannot, for example, rename Sabina Park.

Lest Williams forget, Sabina Park does not belong to the JCA, nor does it belong to the Government. Sabina Park, a household name around the world of cricket, is proudly owned by Kingston Cricket Club.

Some things definitely need to be done at Sabina Park, including the renovation of Kingston Club, something which Cricket West Indies has promised to assist in doing, a museum which tells of the great deeds at Sabina Park, and the playing of some good cricket, something which is really the responsibility of the players, the JCA, and Cricket West Indies.

No, no, Mr President

In The Sunday Gleaner of January 13, Wilford ‘Billy’ Heaven, president of the Jamaica Cricket Association, was quoted as saying that he was very disappointed with what took place on the opening day of the regional four-day match between the Jamaica Scorpions and the Trinidad and Tobago Red Force at Sabina Park.

The soft-spoken president went on to say, however, “I just want make it clear that the facilities at Sabina Park, including the outfield, the pitches, and so on, are not the responsibility of the JCA. It is the responsibility of Sabina Park Holdings Limited, and that organisation takes responsibility for all those things.”

Play started on time at 10 a.m., the Red Force batted first, the batsmen complained about the awkward bounce of the ball after some of them were hit on the body. Play was called off sometime around 10.20 a.m., play was resumed at 2.45 p.m., and Trinidad and Tobago Red Force went on to win the match comfortably early on the fourth day.

The reason given for the early and abrupt interruption of play was that the pitch was too wet.

While one can understand the president’s disappointment towards the entire episode, which showed the inexperience of the ground staff in preparing the pitch and the inexperience of the umpires, who obviously passed the pitch fit for play at the scheduled start of play, one cannot understand how the president of the JCA can say that “it is not the responsibility of the JCA”.

“The JCA rents the facility for these matches and the preparation of pitches has nothing to do with the JCA, but it is our game that was impacted by this, and so we await a report.”

He went on to say that “There was a match referee, the umpires, and everybody was there, so we await their report. We also expect a report from Sabina Park Holdings on the matter and then we’ll take it from there.”

Sabina Park Holdings consists of members Kingston Club, the owners of the ground and part of the stands, and the JCA, the owners of most of the stands, and it is the legal organisation responsible for the running of Sabina Park.

After the fiasco at Sabina Park in 1998 when the Test match between the West Indies and England was abandoned due to a “dangerous” pitch, however, the responsibility of preparing the pitch was removed from Kingston Club and handed to the JCA.

Today, the curator, Michael Hylton of Lucas CC, is the chairman of the JCA’s grounds committee, he is paid by Sabina Park Holdings to look after the preparation of the pitch, and he is recommended by Cricket West Indies to look after the preparation of the pitch for West Indies A team matches and for Test matches.

In such a confusing arrangement, therefore, Heaven may well be correct. The JCA may not legally be responsible for the embarrassment to Jamaica’s cricket that happened at Sabina Park recently.

It is difficult to swallow, however, that something as important as the preparation of the pitch for a first-class match is not the responsibility of the Jamaica Cricket Association, the body elected by the annual general meeting to run the country’s cricket, and the body which should know about cricket, and things to do with cricket, probably more than anyone else.

I wonder also what would have been Heaven’s and the JCA’s explanation, and what Cricket West Indies, who recommended the curator, would have done had the umpires called off the match.