President Williams vows to do more to lift popularity of cricket in Westmoreland

NEWLY RE-ELECTED President of the Westmoreland Cricket Association, Deltonio Williams, says his administration is ready to make more improvements and lift the popularity of the sport in the parish.

Williams, who was not opposed at the annual general meeting and election of officers on Tuesday, has been the driving force behind Westmoreland cricket in recent years.

He has outlined an ambitious range of plans on how he can improve cricket in the parish for the next three years.

“We have started at the primary level and then we are going into the high schools and from there the affiliate clubs. We intend to uplift the clubs because if the clubs are not active and the schools, especially the primary schools, are not playing the game, we cannot move forward,” Williams told The Gleaner.

“The aim is to get the clubs involved. We will also go into the schools with special programmes for the young players. The ones who don’t like cricket, we will introduce the game to them as this will help to keep them off the street,” he added.

More than 30 clubs were present at the meeting. Forty-two primary schools and eight high schools are also affiliated. Because of the limited amount of cricket that is being played in the parish over recent years, promising cricketers have been moving to other parishes to play the game.

“We have lost a lot of good players in the parish. When we produce them and they reach high-school level, some Kingston clubs take them away. This administration, will, with each and every school, sign an agreement to keep the children in Westmoreland,” Williams said.

“We won’t invest our money on the youths and then they just take off. We will transfer them, but whoever takes them, will have to pay us some money,” Williams said.

Williams will lead a team comprising executive secretary Jevon Jones; two first vice-presidents in Collin Hitchman and Arnold Douglas; four second vice -presidents - Clifton Dryden, Raol Wynter, Deron Lee, and David Campbell. Campbell will also be the treasurer for the association.

Williams intends to redevelop cricket in the parish by implementing programmes to keep it alive.

“We are looking forward to having, in another three years, a cricket academy in Westmoreland. This academy will help the schools and community teams,” Williams said. Meanwhile, there are also plans to get more talent for the women’s cricket team in the parish.

During last year’s cricket season, Westmoreland, under Williams’ leadership, won the Kingston Wharves under-15 competition.