The BVI Cricket Association (BVICA) has been forced to cancel its planned West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) level one coaching course, after the regional board refused to provide the necessary funding.

The course which was scheduled for October 7- 12 at Prospect Reef will now be held sometime before the end of the year.

The association was left with no alternative but to take the decision following an email received on October 2 from Kenneth Benjamin, the Territorial Development Officer for the Leeward Islands who was to have served as a main facilitator, in which he advised that the WICB was not providing funds for the course.

Benjamin, the former Antigua and West Indies fast bowler, also said in the email that the WICB expected the local association to cover all costs, including flights and hotel accommodation for himself and another facilitator, both of whom are employees of the board.

However, the BVICA has taken the position that, if the WICB expects the local association to fund the course, then the association alone will decide when the course takes place and who will be the facilitators.

“It is ludicrous that this was not sorted out when the WICB decided what courses to put on in which territory. Clearly, no allowance has been made by the board for the fact that, given the make-up the Leeward Islands, the territorial development officer will have to fly between the member territories and stay overnight in order to be able to conduct courses of this nature and indeed other development programmes,” a statement from the BVICA alluded.

According to the BVICA, they held off from organising its own course earlier in the year because the WICB announced that it was going to schedule courses and that the association had to operate through the territorial development officer for the Leeward Islands.

The BVICA had planned a level one coaching course as well as an umpire’s course in April to ensure the association had a core of fully qualified coaches training domestic teams and qualified umpires officiating in local matches.

Given this turn of events, the BVICA said that it feels as though it is now back to square one after waiting several months for the WICB to act as it had led the association to believe.

The BVICA sincerely apologises to all those who had registered for the now non-existent WICB level one coaching course from October 7 to 12.

“The BVICA has now tentatively scheduled a level one coaching course for the last week of November, alongside an umpire’s course at around the same time. The association will announce more details about these courses in the coming weeks,” the statement noted.

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