Former cricketer wants programme for potential officials in schools

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By Neto Baptiste

Former international cricketer Kenneth Benjamin has called on the country’s sports ministry to invest more into developing the skills of those students interested in sports-based careers at an early age.

Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Benjamin said there are many other avenues, other than on the field, through which nationals could make a living in sports but added that these skills must be harnessed and developed as well.

“The ministry has a responsibility to continue the development in sports in all areas and we’ve been calling for this a long time now, where they have to make some things mandatory. Each school participating in whatever sport must have a statistician to train and officials; so if it is netball they must have two referees and someone to score. If it is cricket, then they must have a scorer and an umpire; football must have an assistant referee and so on. So you are part of this sport, so you must do training and nobody says that when you’re finished school that you have to continue,” he said. 

The former West Indies fast bowler also urged those in authority to encourage students with an interest in sports and who have excellent grammatical and written skills to harness their talent by documenting and publishing the achievements of their schools and schoolmates.

“Each school must have a media person to come and get some training so whenever your team or your school goes out to play there is a form of reporting and they can set up a little Facebook page in terms of the Ministry of Sports and have these students upload interviews. This a great idea because they can get people to volunteer to train these people,” he said.

There has been a long time debate over what is considered a shortage of officials and or statisticians during school and other national sporting leagues and or competitions.

Many, including Benjamin, believe that making training available through the schools for those interested in a possible career in the field, could be one way to solve the problem.

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