Colts are Cricket Champs

Administrators of local cricket call for more crowd participation as Tremors and Colts battle at the finals of the Augustus Gregoire Cricket League

"Daddy! You win?" shouted a five-year-old girl who had been frolicking with her friend in an empty room at the Billy Doctrove pavilion at the Windsor Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Nanthan Insurance Grand Bay Credit Union Colts had just been bowled out for 138; just 13 less that the Go Sports Tremors team first innings score of 151.

"No, not yet", answered her dad, a member of the Tremors team as he and the rest of the squad walked off the field at the end of the Colts' first innings. Tremors celebrated too early.

That little girl was one of less than 75 spectators at the Windsor Park Stadium on Saturday watching day-one of the final match of the Dominica Cricket Association (DCA) 2-day Augustus Gregoire Premier Cricket League.

Low turn-outs at major sports events, like that one on Saturday and Sunday, has been a problem for sports administrators around the country for many years. That goes for all sports: cricket, football, athletics, tennis, basketball, netball and other sports.

"I would love to see the stadium full," said DCA president Glen Joseph at a pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon.

That he was not anticipating much of a crowd at the Windsor Park over the weekend in spite of the DCA's effort at "putting a little cutting edge to the finals" tells the whole story of spectator participation in local sports.

For local cricket to experience larger crowds, Joseph said, Dominica has to return to the old days when teams or clubs took the initiative to invite their supporters to the games.

"If you played cricket in the country before, when you go to play cricket in other villages, we would bring a truck-load of people with us," Joseph said. "Right now guys just jump in their vehicles and come to play cricket."

Joseph added: "We should have clubs to have that followership. That is why we are after strengthening clubs. Our clubs have basically become teams. The idea of strengthening the clubs is that the clubs would be so self-sufficient that you, the club, would have your own followers".

"It is your crowd that makes you win sometimes," he said.

At the end of the match, the little girl's daddy did not win the match, only the first innings that she saw her dad's team celebrating.

Coming from behind, Colts thrashed Tremors by seven wickets.

Scores: Tremors: 151 (Stephan Pascal -36; Jelani Robinson- 38; Jolly 5 for 51 and 56 all out (Martin Matthew 13; Cortney Anselm, 7 for 14.

Colts: 138 (Alick Athanaze- 65; Martin Matthew 5 for 38 and 69 for 3 (Athanaze 26).