THEY RARELY get the deserved credit whenever their athletes deliver quality performances and are often chastised if their charges perform below par. However, one coach who deserves a lot of credit is long-serving Junior Bennett, a man who has helped to produce several West Indies cricketers.
In his 23 years as a coach, Bennett has groomed Chris Gayle, Gareth Breese, David Bernard Jr., Leon Garrett, Wavell Hinds, Ricardo Powell, Jermaine Lawson, Marlon Samuels, and Carlton Baugh Jr., all of whom he coached at the Under-19 level.
Under Bennett's leadership at St. Elizabeth Technical, the school reached all but one Headley Cup final, 1997, when they lost out in the semi-finals. He has guided the school to 17 of 19 titles. In addition, they have won numerous Spaulding Cup titles, the symbol of all-island schoolboy cricket supremacy.
One-on-One recently caught up with Bennett, who has also won two regional Under-19 three-day and two one-day titles as Jamaica Youth coach.
Question: How did you get involved in cricket?
Junior Bennett: I came from a community (Vineyard) where cricket was the only sport played in my days. We had a strong youth club system in that community. We played at different age-group levels and the senior players were very co-operative so we learnt the art from those days. The Institute of Sports (then called National Sports) had some good programmes in those days (mid 1970s), in which each parish had four Under-19 teams. Doris Wignall, formerly Rhoden, was our sport officer. She also allowed us youngsters to organise sessions. We used to do a little track and field but not much.
Q: Tell us about your good times in the sport?
JB: Playing Headley Cup for Dinthill Technical, I was captain there. We reached the semi-finals in 1979. My contribution was as a leg-spinner and I took some wickets. I also played parish cricket for St. Elizabeth but stopped at an early age because I started coaching in the high school (STETHS). Coaching, I leant that from high school because at Dinthill we had to organise most of our training sessions.
Q: What is your biggest achievement to date?
JB: Being an Under-19 coach. It's a big achievement to get the privilege to serve your country.
Q: How do you feel to help produce so many West Indies players?
JB: It's the work. You just have to go out on a daily basis and try and get the job done. You have to look at the youngsters beyond cricket. Once you help these youngsters and they turn out to be good citizens you have to be proud of it. When you look at what is happening in the country, you're happy to produce some good citizens.
Q: If you were to compare cricket now to then, when you started, what would be the difference?
JB: In the early days, those youngsters worked much harder. They worked harder, there attention level was much better. There were less distractions in comparison to now.
Q: Where do you see cricket in the region five years from now?
JB: I would not say cricket is going to die but we have to look at our programmes for youngsters. Cricket is no longer a game of fun, it is a business, it's an investment so we have to look at means and ways to keep abreast of what is happening. If we fail to that then all our efforts are doomed to failure.
Q: Jamaica's Under-19's have not won the regional tournament for a couple years, do you believe there is a problem?
JB: Yes, as a coach you have to look at winning and you also have to look at development. We have not won in a while but you can see some players who have come through, so we need to view that aspect of it all so.
Q: What is your aim in the sport?
JB: I don't really look at that in-depth. I have a job doing now so you have to just go out there and work to the best of your ability. In doing so, whatever comes you take it.
Q: What do you do outside of cricket?
JB: I work at INSPORTS as a sports development officer.
- Anthony Foster
