By Tony Becca - On The Boundary 
ROHAN KANHAI must be smiling at his home in Lancashire and, if he were alive, so too would Rex Fennell.
Kanhai, the former West Indies star batsman and captain, and Fennell, a past president of the Jamaica Cricket Board of Control, believed in rural cricketers.
During his years as Jamaica's coach Kanhai said, time and time again, that the future of Jamaica's cricket was in the hands of rural players because of their natural talent and their commitment; and Fennell shared that view - to the extent that when others in the Board were saying no 15 years ago because rural parish teams were weak in comparison to club teams in the Corporate Area, he fought for a national competition that would include parish teams and club teams.
Today, one must be happy and the other would have been proud. Rural cricket is the dominant force in Jamaica's cricket.
In 1990 and 1991, in the first two years of the all island competitions involving club and parishes, it took a strong Melbourne team to deny Clarendon in both the league and the knockout titles.
In the past few years, Melbourne, Lucas and the Jamaica Defence Force have had to dig deep to stop St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland; and with three rounds to go in the Super League, St. Elizabeth - ahead of Melbourne, Kingston, Lucas and Kensington - are level on points with JDF at the top of the standings.
Tomorrow's champions, however, are today's youngsters and based on what has been happening this year, tomorrow's champions, most of them, seem destined to come from rural Jamaica.
For those who do not remember, the all-island schoolboy champions are Holmwood of Manchester who scored 519 for nine declared and then routed Norman Manley of Kingston for 103 and 25 in the final; the Under 16 champions are St. Elizabeth Technical. The two-time defending champions of the Kingston Wharves zonal competition for players Under 18 are Middlesex South; and no city team has ever won the former Carib Cement and now the Jamaica National Building Society's All Age and Primary schools competitions.
On top of that, the stars of Jamaica's champion team at this year's West Indies Under 15 tournament were mostly rural players and the captain was Jaimie Trenchfield of St. Thomas.
What is really impressive, however, is that in the list of 27 players called to prepare for Jamaica's youth team to the regional tournament, seven are from the Corporate Area and 20 are from rural Jamaica.
Remembering the days when a rural player had to be twice as good as a city player to get into the Jamaica All Schools team and then the Jamaica Youth team, things and times have really changed.
In fact, things and times have changed so much that even if a few city players get into the final squad, there is a possibility that some time during the tournament, Jamaica could take the field with all 11 players coming from the rural areas.
Things and times have changed so much that when compared to those from the Corporate Area, the youngsters in rural Jamaica are not only better but, as demonstrated by Holmwood against Norman Manley, most of them, probably, are now also at least twice as good.
