Adrian Smiley Bayley Vies for Key Role on Barbados Cricket Association Board of Management
Adrian Smiley Bayley, a veteran businessman and BCA member since 1990, aims to join the BCA board to address financial challenges facing cricket clubs in Barbados. He proposes renewable energy projects and street renaming initiatives.
Veteran businessman Adrian Smiley Bayley is contending for one of the few coveted spots on the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) board of management.
Having been a member of the association since 1990, Bayley said he wanted to be a director to help steer the organisation down a more successful path.
He insisted that domestic cricket was under great threat and urgent intervention was needed.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Bayley said that cricket clubs across the island must modernise their operations to make the clubs more financially sustainable.
“Club cricket in Barbados is under threat,” he explained.
“Clubs are struggling financially and if I am successful in having a seat on the board of management, I want to engage the Minister of Energy on implementing a renewable energy project.
“Every clubhouse should have photovoltaic cells on the roofs to cut down on the expense of their light bills. I want the board to engage the Minister of Sports to discuss the high water bills.
To prepare a pitch Sunday to Sunday groundsmen have to be utilising a lot of water. These are two critical things we have to look at if we are serious about furthering the development of club cricket,” he went on.
The BCA elections take place next week Wednesday and there are only three spots for director.
Bayley, a director of the Transport Authority, noted that another item on his agenda, if successful at the polls, was to get the board to start a renaming campaign of all the streets surrounding Kensington Oval.
“President Kennedy Drive and Fontabelle, for example, need to be renamed,” he suggested. President Kennedy Drive should be renamed to Greenidge and Haynes Drive. Fontabelle should be renamed to Garner and Marshall Boulevard.
“We need respect for these players, they need to be honoured. And apart from Malcolm Marshall they are still alive.
In 2024 after becoming a republic, it is only fitting that we rename these streets; after all they surround Kensington Oval and we should create a synergy between Kensington and its environs.
“When locals and tourists are going to the Mecca, they should be able to say ‘pick me up from Greenidge and Haynes Drive’ or ‘I will be parked out by Garner and Marshall Boulevard’.
As it relates to the island’s cricketing season, Bayley stated that an adjustment needs to be made to accommodate local players taking part in tournaments abroad.
“All of the quality players are being pulled away in the North American market to play Twenty20 Cricket basically in Canada and America. We might have to look at a way to change our cricketing season and play most of our cricket in the months of October, November and December where it is winter in those countries and we can have our best players in Barbados to keep our cricket alive,” he proposed, pointing out that the domestic season clashes with overseas tournaments from May to September.
He also said the BCA should be looking to attract younger members by creating programmes in which the captains of the senior Barbados team could join and make a valuable contribution.
The former board member of Carlton Cricket Club added that the BCA should create an initiative for local clubs to benefit when their players are selected for international franchises.
“Clubs in Barbados must be able to get some sort of financial benefit when these guys sign these contracts. Clubs would have invested in these players from a very young age. The BCA would have invested in all of these players who would have come through youth programmes.
“We need to take a lesson from other sporting clubs around the world,” he said. “When there are major deals for players coming from smaller clubs to major ones such as Real Madrid, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Liverpool, the feeder clubs that would have mentored those young players get some royalties.
They get some money back into the local clubs so that the clubs can survive. We can learn from this approach.”
Bayley is the immediate past president of the Bridgetown Port Taxi Co-op Society and a former member of the Barbados Cruise Tourism Board. (SZB)
