Legendary Guyanese and West Indies cricketer Sir Clive Lloyd is set to take a lead role in the implementation and running of Guyana Cricket Academy; Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr has revealed.
Ramson made the disclosure during his end-of-year review on Saturday last at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Homestretch Avenue, while giving an update on the Cricket Academy Project which will have a home at Good Hope on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).
The Sport Minister stated, “We commenced the clearing of the area and I also want to announce that Clive Lloyd has agreed to have a lead role in the operationalisation – well, project execution as well as the operationalisation of the Cricket Academy and we’re going to be entering into a contract with him for employment in the next maybe, week or two weeks or so.”
Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr
“We believe that it is important for us to have a Cricket Academy here in Guyana, it is our lead sport,” Ramson Jr emphasised.
In boldly titling cricket as Guyana’s ‘lead sport’, Ramson Jr also took the opportunity to justify the heavy investment in the sport.
“So, the investment, sometimes people say ‘oh why are we investing so much in cricket?’ but the investment is important, without the investment, how are you going to get the players? And that’s one of the reasons why West Indies cricket was on the decline. It was on the decline because there was no investment being made on the development of players. There was a lot of management, administration, politics, but there wasn’t a lot of investment, especially infrastructure and technological investment being made in the players and the developmental programmes,” the Sport Minister explained.
Ramson Jr also reiterated the need for a Cricket Academy in Guyana given that Guyana currently has several players in the West Indies set-up, who are also performing exceptionally.
