SPORTS
Newsday reporter
BRYAN DAVIS
I was shocked to read in Newsday on January 11, an objection by newly appointed Clarke Road coach Dinesh Mahabir to Queen’s Park Cricket Club having two teams in the TT Cricket Board Premiership League 1.
I was also proud to read the board president, Mr. Azim Bassarath, defending their decision to allow it with the following observations:
“QPCC have a number of players, probably the most cricketers in the country, who are in the line or are members of their club. They have developed their players over the years. While they have a team in the senior TT cricket team, they had teams playing in the zonal competitions.
“They would have won these zonal competitions going forward and kept winning until two teams finished in the first division. It’s really commendable for any club to achieve.”
This last observation is powerful for Bassarath’s explanation.
He continued: “It is not prohibited in the constitution of the board or its regulation. This is allowed. There is nothing wrong with that.”
In short, for QPCC. It was formed in 1891 by men who were deeply interested in the game of cricket. From its inception, they decided to have three committees, to be voted on each year for the proper functioning of the club in order to achieve its objective, which was to understand, improve and develop the game of cricket (which was in its beginnings in time) to reach a level for the satisfaction of its members, both players and non-players.
The three commissions are: 1) management; to direct and be responsible for the affairs of the club, 2) cricket; be responsible for the development, guidance and selection of the club’s junior and junior cricketers, plus the protection and advancement of the game of cricket and 3) balloting; to elect new ordinary members of the club.
Like any other organization, QPCC would have had its bad times and good times over the decades.
It has survived criticism, fair and unfair. However, it changed over time and is currently an integral institution in our country.
It has provided cricketers in Trinidad and Tobago and the West Indies since the birth of Caribbean cricket, of which it was and is a part.
Mahabir suggested that the QPCC 1 and 2 teams play the first match of each format to prevent the possibility of collusion being left open when they play each other.
In QPCC, not a single cricket member of my day and I’m sure now, would even know how to organize and plan a match setup of their own.
From generation to generation, QPCC cricketers have been trained in the right ways to play the noble game and I am sure it would never enter the mind of a player of this club to participate in fixed matches.
I doubt if anyone would know how to approach fellow clubbers at that point (no pun intended).
There are two important points to note.
First, any QPCC cricketer attempting such a thing would be immediately expelled. Secondly, QPCC’s most competitive matches in a season, when both teams are in the same division, are when they play against each other. Because team 2 wants to prove that they are better than team 1. Also, individuals want to prove the club selectors wrong.
QPCC had two teams in the same division in the 1930s.
In 1956, when the Trinidad Cricket Council was formed, they were divided into a championship scale, equivalent to the current Premier League; and the upper class, now prime minister 2.
In 1964, under Jeffrey Stollmeyer, the second team won the senior division and was promoted to the championship division. I was playing in the first team then, so I am aware of how competitive it is when two club teams meet.
The reasons for two teams in one division are for excellent rationality as explained by Mr. Bassarath.
In the sixties, the Maple club had two teams in the championship, while Harvard and Paragon had one each in the championship and the upper division, playing in the North Zone.
There were two zones then, North and South, the winners of each zone met in the final.
What do you want QPCC to do? Refuse to accept players who want to join? Life is about growth and so is cricket!
Expand your cricket player improvement club! Abe Lincoln once said, “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong!”
