HIS mission is to govern, develop and promote all forms of cricket at all levels within the Castries Basin. He also has to enable his affiliates to achieve and sustain competitive excellence, as well as to successfully compete in the Saint Lucia National Cricket Association (SLNCA) tournaments.
His name is Wayne Auguste, President of the Central Castries Cricket Association, an individual who wants to lead the sport to new heights by creating and administering value added programmes.
Working alongside him are executive members. Keith Charlery – Vice President, Kevin Arnold – Secretary, Patrick Clarke – Treasurer, Barry Charles – Assistant Secretary/ Treasurer. The Technical Team – Tyrone Harris – Manager, Keith Charlery – Head Coach and Germaine Alexander – Fitness Trainer.”
“Regarding our plans and putting it up in a nutshell, we want to see ourselves as the beacon for cricket development. We have established a number of core values, which include teamwork, excellence, accountability, respect for each other, discipline, honesty and commitment. The values are for Board members, executive members and our cricketers,” Auguste said.
He added, “Our fundamental objectives for 2021 – 2023 period are where all the excitement comes. We want to implement a modern player and Information Management System (IMS). Essentially, we want to make our players become more aware of who they are as cricketers. All their statistics and matches played will be code dated/ central data base. We will also look at the Wagon Wheel (WW), what areas they’re scoring and what their strengths are, so when the players sit with their coach they will be able to go through their statistics.”
“The second part of the IMS is to collect all pertinent data on players to include their date of birth, age, parents, (next of kin) and fitness. Our players will be subjected to a certain level of fitness / regime. For example, if one of our players gets selected on the Windward Islands team, our programme will be such that it will be at the level of what the Volcanoes will be doing, so when a player from Central Castries gets selected on the Volcanoes squad, whether it’s for training or practice matches, they would not have to go through any elaborate level of work to bring him up to the level of fitness, our programme will ensure that they are ready at the minimum forty for the Yoyo Test they looking to build.”
“We are also looking to develop our brand which is Central Castries which is a bit watered down right now. We want to develop a brand that stakeholders want to be motivated and be a part of. We want to work with parents especially. We hardly see parents at the Mindoo Phillip Park, especially when we launch our youth programme which will be coming up as soon as we get clearance from the CMO’s office to do so.
Auguste said his team will be working with a number of children from the Marchand community.
“We have a list with 15 names already to include names of parents and telephone numbers, but because of Covid-19 we had to hold back on it. We are going to launch a programme with our stakeholders; our sponsors will be part of it, parents, players, and the government of Saint Lucia,” Auguste said.
He made a special appeal to anyone who is interested in serving as a volunteer claiming that CCCA need help to implement its strategic plan.
“It’s very bold and it demands resources, not only financial, but human resource as well as the schools in the Castries basin. They form a major part of our plans going forward,” he said.
In terms of upgrading of facilities, Auguste said, “At present we are embarked on a conversation with Sports Saint Lucia Inc (SSI), the Rotary Club of Saint Lucia (RCSL) regarding renovation to the net facilities at the Mindoo Phillip Park. Currently the net facilities are way below standard, only one section can be used.”
“We would like to see the net facilities brought up to a first class standard to allow the players to benefit from at least four different surfaces to include a grass service, a dust bowl for spinners, a hard concrete and a pitch which is fairly hard that the ball will bounce on normal turf, this is the thinking behind where we want to upgrade the facility.”
Is CCCA financially stable? “Yes, from the perspective that we have entered a contractual arrangement with one sponsor so far with the commitment of EC$36,000.00 over the next three years that gives us some comfort. That sponsor also donated a bowling machine to the value of $16,000.00 to CCCA and we are hoping to acquire another in the next two years.”
“Keith Charlery and Germaine Alexander they’re doing a tremendous job. We launched a High-Performance Programme (HPP) during Covid because we couldn’t play any cricket. We looked for every opportunity we had based on the parameters that were granted to us by the CMO office. We have not formally launched it to the public, but we have launched it internally.
“The ICC Under 19 world Cup will take place early 2022. We have the likes of Jayden Elibox, left arm orthodox spinner who has develop tremendously, Keegan Arnold, left arm orthodox spinner and right-hand batsman, Mc Kenny Clarke, a fast bowler who is only 17 years. Then we have IFran Charles who open the batting for the Windward Islands Under 15 team, his batting is really coming on. We also have Sanjay Hayle, Tyler Sookwa and Dwight Thomas; we are extremely excited about the future. We want to ensure our players are ready should in case anyone of them receives a call to national or regional duties, because the programme that Charlery and Germaine put out there is way up there to anything offered in the region.”
Does the CCCA has plans to work alongside the SLNCA, SSI and the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports to transform a section of the dilapidated players pavilion at the MPP into an HPP?
“It has come up in our Board discussions and executive meetings, it is part of our plans. We are in negotiations with the government of Saint Lucia and the private sector to enhance our cricket infrastructure and I am referring to the nets as well as the players pavilion and hopefully to transfer it into classrooms.
“CCCA Treasurer Patrick Clarke has had extensive discussion with a psychologist out of the UK who is volunteering to do work with the team, so the mental side of the game is a big part of what we will be developing. The same way you train your muscles, you fine tune your skills, you have to do the same thing to your mind to ensure that when you in a game situation you can respond appropriately.”
Castries at one time was a beacon of cricket with the following combined 23 teams/ clubs participating in 1st and 2nd division cricket played on weekends and on Wednesday afternoons (commercial half day) at the Mindoo Phillip Park (old Victoria Park), and the Marchand Ground. The teams were: Aussies, CYO, Cedars, Courtesy Taxi, Goodwill, Lancers, La Toc Hotel, Millet, Shamrock, Saint Lucia CC, St. Mary’s College, New Park, Saint Lucia Fire Service, Police, Unique, Castries Under 19, Nostradam, Geest Industries, J.Q. Charles, Leon Hess Secondary, Cable and Wireless, South Castries and Paragons.
