Tony Becca

When the Super Cup cricket tournament opens next month, it will do so under a new format - a format which the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) hopes will revitalise domestic cricket, improve the standard of play and put some money into the pockets of players, coaches and umpires.

After a number of changes over the years, and definitely so over the past 40 years, after the recent one which saw the original Senior Cup becoming the Super Cup and the Senior Cup with demotion and promotion, JCA, under the guidance of first vice-president Paul Campbell, has decided that money is important to development, it has decided to go professional and it has come up with, for the time being, a semi-professional league which will feature eight teams playing one round this year before, hopefully, playing return matches starting next year.

Standards

With the players divided into categories according to status; with the top players earning retainer fees above a reported $500,000 and fees of around $20,000 per match; with around $1 million going to the winning team and $400,000 to the team which finishes in second spot; with managers, coaches, captains, scorers and room attendants also apparently getting something out of the pot and reasonably so and with the teams also getting something to improve their facilities, the semi-pro league is set to cost a lot of money.

Although, in the interest of lifting the standard of the game, it will be or should be money well spent, the questions are these: Where will it come from and how long will it last?

Regardless of where the money is coming from, there is one problem facing the JCA.

For a sport to be professional, it needs to be popular, it needs to pull in people through the gates to watch it and it needs to give companies a good reason why they should get involved in it.

The people administering need to be able to tell the companies what they are getting out of it and in a country where, even when the best is up against the best in the club competition only 20 or 30 spectators are present, even when the national team is in action only a few hundred people are present, it is difficult to see cricket as a professional sport - and especially so for more than a season or two.

Based on what has been happening in club cricket in recent years, if you were to attempt to collect a fee at the gate, someone from the organisers or the clubs would end up digging into his pocket to make up the day's wage for the gatekeeper.

Marketing needed

The JCA will have to do a lot of selling, a lot of marketing, in order to get this off the ground much more to keep it going.

They need to get the people to love the game as they used to do once upon a time, and also to get the players, based on their attitude, probably even more so than their ability, to make the people love them and want to see them batting, bowling and fielding.

Thinking about it, based on support for the game, based on the players' respect for the fans and the fans' response to them, maybe the semi-pro league should be played in South St. Elizabeth where matches involving teams like Comma Pen, Chocolate Hole, Uprising, Morningside and Ballards Valley, attract more people than matches involving Melbourne, Kingston, Kensington, St Catherine and Lucas.

Where players like Donovan Sinclair, Shane Powell and Orville Pennant, Howard Harris and Damion Ebanks, Marlon Johnson, Ziggy Levy, Howard Powell, and Ishmael Parchment, Damion Sangster, Davian Davidson and Owayne Holness, attract more people than Marlon Samuels, Christopher Gayle, Wavell Hinds and company.

Where huge scores, such as 499 for six off 35 overs and centuries upon centuries are the order of any day and where the people turn out to watch cricket on a Sunday.

Cheered

On Sunday, for example, I was at the lovely, tree-lined Harper Miller Oval which sits among the cool hills of Neif Mountain in South-east St. Elizabeth. I was there to see the NCB 35-over final between Comma Pen and Chocolate Hole and I was surrounded by thousands of people of all shades who ringed the boundary, by women of all ages and beautifully dressed from head to toe, by men of all ages, by little boys and little girls and before the rain came and spoiled the fun, they cheered every delivery, every run, every six, every time someone stopped the ball and every catch.

And apart from the big-hitting of Shane Powell and Donald Sinclair which many times sent the ball sailing into the mango trees beyond the boundary, although the field, despite being green, was no Sabina Park, the fielding was brilliant and the catching simply marvellous.

It will be a long time before I forget four moments of brilliance.

One was the catch by Odean Thomas to dismiss Allen Powell off pacer Greg Thompson - the fielder, stationed at mid-on, turning to his right, running back, to his left for quite a distance and taking the catch as the ball came down over his left shoulder.

Second was Neif McNally's run-out of Holness - the fielder, stationed at backward point, dashing to his right, picking up the ball with one hand and with speed and accuracy important to getting his man, with one stump to aim at, hitting it on the run.

The third moment was the stumping of Shane Powell by Parchment off Damion Davidson, and number four was another catch -- this time by McNally who, running back and to his right from gully, caught the big-hitter off Davidson with the ball coming down over his left shoulder.