BCA president looking past Kensington Oval debacle

President of the Barbados Cricket Association Calvin Hope no longer intends to be drawn into discussions surrounding the highly publicised spat with Cricket West Indies regarding Kensington Oval.

Hope made his position clear during an interview with Barbados TODAY, after he was asked to respond to recent comments made by CWI vice-president Azim Bassarath.

He said the issue regarding CWI’s decision not to award any international matches to Barbados this year had been widely ventilated and needed to be put to bed.

Hope disclosed that he most recently revisited the topic on the Mason and Guest Cricket Show and had nothing more to add.

“As far as I am concerned, Mr Bassarath knows very well what my concerns are and what I said. All others involved would have known what my concerns are as well and these are not new things. I don’t have anything more to add at this time. I made my comment, that’s the end of that as far as I’m concerned.”

“Cricket West Indies will do what they have to do and I just hope that things would improve, that’s all I could say. But I really don’t want to get into it because Barbados shouldn’t have to be trying to justify why cricket should be held in Barbados or anything like that. Reasonableness should always be obtained and basically I would say that there was no reasonableness in this,” Hope said.

“Anybody looking on, the average man on the Black Rock bus would hold that view, given the amount of cricket that is coming to the region. So you know, I don’t want to get into anything.”

Hope said he was focused on improving cricket at the domestic level following the start of the 2026 BCA season on April 4.

He said the BCA was looking to improve the administration of clubs, their competitiveness and to add incentives that would motivate cricketers.

“Well it appears that there’s some enthusiasm with the new initiatives and things got off to a reasonable start. I think clubs are enthusiastic, certainly at the elite level.” 

“We will be working with the clubs going forward in an effort to have a successful season as usual. Our domestic cricket is usually very successful, no major incidents and so forth,” Hope pointed out.

“To sustain the legacy of our club cricket is very, very important, it is the mainstay of all cricket. And when I say club cricket, I include schools’ cricket [because] schools are the bedrock of the production line. These are things for a number of years that the BCA has been cognizant of that need to be strengthened, and we just need to provide support where we can and encourage and support each other.”

Hope also endorsed the recent comments of Cricket Legends of Barbados chairman, Joel Garner, who called for more local cricket to be televised in an effort to attract and connect with a more youthful audience.

“The plan is always to promote cricket and we are engaging all the time with the media to broadcast cricket.”

“For years now we have had the (radio) commentary going every Saturday. I want cricket shown on TV and I share The Most Honourable Joel Garner’s concern and my desire would be to have cricket on television too,” Hope said.

“It’s all about building a media product. You need equipment and the various things of how you put that product together for people for it to be attractive to the viewer. It’s not a straightforward situation, but it is not outside of our capability. I certainly will continue to work towards that and try to engage with the board and relevant authorities to see how we can pull off things like that in the future. It’s all about promotion of the game.”