July 2011


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What is the most essential ‘accessory’ you grab while racing out the door: your bookbag or your sports equipment gear?

If you choose both, then you fit the profile that former national cricketer, Richard Kelly, and present Coach of UWI St. Augustine cricket team approves.

Successful athletes and students share similar traits such as discipline, determination and diligence, and Kelly believes these traits can come from being involved in a team sport such as the cricket for which he is responsible at the Campus.

UWI’s cricket is divided between two associations: the UWI team and UWI club team. There are plans however to disband the two teams in September and have just one: the UWI club team. This will render UWI students eligible for not only UWI games but also external competitions.

New players are recruited at the beginning of the first semester. Advertisements for new recruits occur mainly during orientation week. Once you are successfully a part of the UWI cricket team you should expect to undergo intense training.

“Preparation for any game is not an overnight process,” says Kelly. “We train three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Between September and December our pre-season training is a lot of physical and technical work to prepare for the competition.”

Players should also expect to play practice matches against well established teams like Alescon Comets and Moosai Sports and review tapes of their games as part of their training.

Many are still skeptical about how students can successfully integrate team sports with academics.

Kelly pinpointed the lack of integration or balance between the two as one of his challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges is the availability of players to train on a consistent basis...” he said. The inconsistency comes as a result of their class schedules. He feels that the ideal system would be where the schedules allow some flexibility to students.

The inability to practice consistently may hamper the general growth and performance of a player. However, this limitation did not affect the cricket team’s performance at UWI Games 2011. Even though they tied with Mona Campus for second place, they were able to avenge themselves at the 5th annual Inter-Collegiate 20/20 cricket, competition placing first. The competition was held immediately after the Games at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados. The victory was even sweeter for UWI St. Augustine as it was their first time at the competition.