Corneal: WICB destroying cricket

Former national football coach and T&T cricketer Alvin Corneal has accused officials at the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) of trying to destroy regional cricket.



“I make no apologies to say that the WICB and the ICC are mindless about the fact that they are having cricketing events running concurrently. It is not fair to the countries. It is not fair to the players. We have Darren Bravo playing here, when he should be playing for West Indies. Then we want to find out why we can’t win the Caribbean tournaments! Because we don’t have all the players!



“We are playing here and (Sunil) Narine is out playing in India, and (Kieron) Pollard and (Dwayne) Bravo. What kind of a society are we growing? Are we really responsible or are we paying lip service to the development of the sport?” he asked.



Corneal was speaking at the recent launch of the glossy sport magazine called Play Caribbean Sports by Safari Publishing held at the president’s box at the Queen’s park Oval, Port-of-Spain.



He also lashed out at cricket promoters who he accused of poorly marketing the sport causing them to now resort to gimmickry in an effort to win back public support for the game which still has a place in the fabric of the Caribbean lifestyle.



“We must remember that sport is the commodity. Machel Montano coming in here (Oval) to a cricket match means nothing. If you bring Machel in there, no disrespect to him, I like the guy, I respect him, too. I could probably sing better than him. It’s because the cricket people are telling me the cricketers can’t keep your attention, so therefore we have to bring somebody else? Cricket is the commodity,” said Corneal.



He added, “When (Sir) Gary Sobers walked there you can’t disturb him with anybody singing. Are you crazy!? Rohan Kanhai, Joe Solomon…we have images to take our sport forward, but where are they? Has anybody ever thought of making a special day at the test match and bring Rohan Kanhai and bring him here and let him meet the people? That alone will bring people in here. That is the value of sport.



“I have been in it a long time and so has Daren (Ganga). We understand the feeling of it. We were proud every day. I can’t play anymore. I can’t do better. I can’t do any worst, but I am still proud that it happened. And it happened during the course of my lifetime where I never one day got up and said I am fed up of this.”



Corneal tackled the issue related to broadcast blackout which occurs for some major cricket matches. He cited last weekend’s regional four-day cricket competition at the Oval.



He accused media executives of trampling on this important aspects of Caribbean culture and the foisting their own impression of life–the Caribbean way.
source:http://guardian.co.tt