Jeddy hopes Central West Region will turn things around on development front

openingbat — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:55:00 GMT

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By Peter Della Penna

Ahmed Jeddy, the Central West Region’s representative on the USACA board of directors, has admitted to failures in the lack of progress for youth and women’s cricket in his region, but says that it is a shared responsibility among many leaders in his region to improve.

“I am the first person who will raise my hand and tell you that basically we are not where we are supposed to be,” said Jeddy, in response to some quotes in a recent DreamCricket article regarding the Texas intercity competition that highlighted problems with youth development. “People have come very hard on my region and they think that it’s just the regional director’s responsibility to spearhead the region. Just like any other organization, just like the game of cricket, it is teamwork. One man cannot win you a game and one man cannot run an organization either. Any organization or any sporting event has to have a team effort.”

The Central West Region was the only region not to send a team to the U-15 National Tournament in Newark, N.J., this past summer. It was also one of four regions not to have a women’s team formed to play in the Women’s National Tournament that took place in Cupertino, Calif.

“Our youth program is going nowhere. Our women’s program is going nowhere. We have been trying our league presidents to nominate their representatives who can work with the women’s coordinator in our region,” said Jeddy. “We have not found enough womens players who are willing to come forward. We are still waiting out of the four leagues, three leagues to even designate their liaisons from their respective leagues who can work with our women’s coordinator to kickstart a program.”

Jeddy feels that part of the problem is at the league level. He says administrators do not show interest in youth or women’s programs and instead focus their time solely on men’s cricket. This makes it harder for him to try to organize things from the various leagues to come together at the regional level.

“For the leagues, their primary goal is to run the league. I have been told that by many league presidents, ‘For us we have to first run our leagues and then after that we’ll worry about USACA and USACA’s programs’ and that is what is putting Central West down is this negligent attitude,” said Jeddy. “If you don’t have people who want to even communicate back to you nine out of 12 months of the year and they only want to do things when there is a senior tournament, then how do you expect that region to take that next step?"

"At the end of the day, if you do not have a support cast, $20,000 plus later and almost two and a half years later, I still find myself about 15 years behind compared to all the other regions who are far ahead of us. That’s how much I have personally probably invested in cricket.”

“I think in my capacity, I’ve always been on the forefront, even out of my personal funding and also with sponsorships, singlehandedly I have driven a lot of programs. When we had the USACA Western Conference in Houston two years ago, I singlehandedly went out and contributed a lot of funds to stage the tournament. So between USACA, HCL (Houston Cricket League) and myself, we were the sole financers of that tournament.”

“Then comes the Under-19 team,” said Jeddy. “Last year, I was singlehandedly responsible to take my Under-19 players to New York and that included their uniforms, that included everything. I did not see no sponsors coming in at that time too. I did not see no big names from Austin or any other place to help us out and at that time the excuse that was given to me was, ‘Oh. Bad economy. We cannot do anything.’ So when the bad economy was there, the bad economy was here as well. So the point I am trying to make is that one man cannot do anything. I can only ask.”

As for what it will take to get an U-15 team and a women’s team together at the regional level, Jeddy again argued that he needs cooperation and vision at the league level and that these things are just as essential as funding if things are going to change.

“Since 2008, I personally have tried everything possible to get the Under-15 team going and I could not find enough players, because there have not been initiatives driven in the region by the youth coordinators, the league presidents. A regional director can only tell you the expectation and give you an idea of how to run the program,” said Jeddy. “Am I proud of my region’s progress? No, absolutely not. Can I make a difference? Yes, I want to make a difference, but I need support. I need people to step up. I need the youth coordinator to step up. I need the women’s coordinator to step up. I need the league presidents to step up to help these other positions to do their job.”

USA Cricketer : Colorado Cricket, Ahmed Jeddy

Jeddy hopes Central West Region will turn things around on development front