Tony Becca THE JAMAICA Cricket Association's Masters League 40 overs competition for players over age 40 got under way on Sunday with 16 teams in the hunt for the title.
A few years ago when the competition was first played, cricketers who qualified, including former Senior Cup players, former Jamaica players like Owen Mitchell, Gladstone Robinson, Len Levy, Lloyd Morgan, Linden Wright, William Haye, Owen Allison and Carlton Gordon, former West Indies players like Arthur Barrett, Basil Williams and Maurice Foster, were excited about it and thought it was a great idea and one which could assist in spreading the gospel of the game.
Like the officers of the clubs who welcomed it, the players believed that such a competition would inject some life into the clubs and with the former stars in action, the interest was great.
For those over 40s, many of them over 50s, who did not attain th of Senior Cup, first-class cricket or Test cricket - many of whom did not even play club cricket at any level, it was an opportunity, not only to enjoy a drink on a Sunday afternoon after matches, but also to rub shoulders with those who did. Despite their age, it was also an opportunity to test their skills against the good players of the past and all the clubs and all the parishes got involved.
Today, however, all that has changed - at least as far as the clubs, the big clubs in the Corporate Area, are concerned.
Team preparation
On Sunday when the competition got under way, there were 16 teams - 12 from rural Jamaica and four from the Corporate Area.
With Westmoreland, Hanover, Trelawny, St. James, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, St. Catherine CA, Clarendon, St. Mary, St. Ann, St. Thomas and Portland in action, all the 12 rural parishes were represented.
With Kingston CC, Police, Kingston and St. Andrew CC and Domtar the only teams representing the Corporate Area, however, meant that, apart from Kingston CC, the big clubs, the clubs that have been the cornerstone of cricket in Jamaica, the clubs that have, along with Kingston CC, produced the bulk of those who represent Jamaica and the West Indies from Jamaica, were all missing.
In other words, there was no Melbourne, there was no Kensington, there was no Lucas, there was no Boys' Town, and even forgetting that there was no Jamaica Defence Force, there was also no St. Catherine CC.
When one remembers that according to the Oxford dictionary a club "is an association dedicated to a particular interest or activity", that a club "is an organisation constituted to play matches in a particular sport", that clubs like Melbourne, Kensington and Lucas were indeed formed to play cricket and have each been around for more than 100 years, that Melbourne has produced the likes of Michael Holding and Courtney Walsh, that Kensington have paraded one like Alfred Valentine and have produced one like Lawrence Rowe and that Lucas have produced one like George Headley and one like Chris Gayle, the fact that they are not playing cricket, are not in the Masters League, is a disappointment bordering on an embarrassment.
Absence of clubs
The absence of these clubs shows what is happening to cricket in the city and in particular to cricket in the clubs.
The Masters League is not what the Senior Cup was, and it is not what the Super League is. It is, however, cricket, and if its purpose is to play cricket, if its aim is to foster the development of the game, a cricket club should have a mixture of members - a mixture that should include those who are learning the game and those who have hung their boots but still enjoy a 'knock' every now and then.
The Masters League offers a minimum of three matches and a maximum of five matches every year.
What is disturbing about the absence of the clubs from the Masters League is not that, as poor as they may be, they do not have the money or that that they do not have the desire.
What is disturbing is that none of them, including Kensington and Lucas who have been demoted and will not be in the Super League next season, have enough members over 40 to even make up a team.
