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Blame the BCA - Barbados Today

Former Barbados all-rounder Franklyn Stephenson says the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) is to blame for the limited opportunities available to young local cricketers, and the reason why many are migrating to further their cricketing careers.Stephenson told Barbados TODAY that he currently has about sixty young enthusiastic children at his academy who love cricket and want to be successful at it. But he added there were so many “dead ends” to progressing in the island, that many of the youngsters saw their future as being outside of Barbados. “We have about three players from the academy that are naturalising (in England) and I’m looking to get another five or six out as soon as possible because the things that are happening here are not conducive to their cricket at all,” he said.His comments come after England Under-19 opener Jacob Bethell, who was one of the stars of the recently concluded ICC Under-19 World Cup hosted in the Caribbean, stated in an interview with the British media, that he took the tough decision to represent England instead of the region of his birth, because of the comparative abundance of opportunities in the United Kingdom. Bethell, who is a product of Stephenson’s cricket academy, and who played Under-13 cricket for Barbados, told the BBC that there were few opportunities in his homeland at the 13 to 15 age group. “I was born in Barbados, I lived there until I was 13, my parents still live there now. It’s not a bad place to grow up, the weather’s always nice and the people are lovely. It’s just a shame that the opportunities get less and less after around the ages of 13 to 15. . .There were definitely players out there that had a bit about them, but they no longer play much as there wasn’t really much cricket to play,” he told the British press.

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