BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 28, 2017–The attached message was sent in by the President of the Belize National Cricket Association (BNCA), Jeremy McCulloch. He has resigned. Also, I have withdrawn from doing anything for cricket. It was a pleasure doing so, but it had gotten to a point where a line has been drawn.

I thank everyone who had supported me constructively throughout these 6-plus years… No more postings on cricket, but later I will find other positive things to write about. Thanks again. May you all, be blessed.

A message from BNCA President, Jeremy McCulloch:

In 2015, I took office as President of the Belize National Cricket Association (BNCA), with the belief that I could affect change in the development of the sport we loved. We have made some progress with corporate sponsors and neighboring countries, even in the ICC office, but not without difficulty. We have also lost a lot on the way forward as well.

Cricket has evolved, as mankind changes. So, in order to keep up, there are certain criteria we must meet as a cricket community, or we will remain in the shadow and dust. We cannot continue to go about pretending that the problems we are having in the cricket community is one for the executive body. If we ignore this, then the entire cricket community is practicing hypocrisy.

The Belize River Valley has the most sets of intelligent people, my people; but we are so self-absorbed with winning, that we forget the most basic commandment – love your neighbor as yourself. How can we fix the problem, if we spend all our time fighting amongst each other? We are smart people, so we know the challenges we face in this day and age; however, now is the time to unite and learn to work with each other; if not, we will lose our heritage.

I would like to end by saying that my resignation is not because of any internal conflict with my executive, as the public was made to believe. I have had an excellent working relationship with these people. They are very hardworking, and I would not have it any other way. So, to my other executive members, I thank you guys for an amazing three years. You guys displayed true comradeship, and proved that regardless of gender, different values and opinions, great things can still be accomplished.

I would also like to thank the cricket community for the support over the years, and I hope that you guys show that very support to the next president. Philippians 2:3, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Thank you.

(Amandala Sports Ed. Note: It appears these are turbulent times for cricket in the Belize River Valley. Let’s hope that something good comes out of it for the benefit of all, especially the youth.

According to last week’s Cricket Corner report by Peter Young, Summer Fever had defeated defending champs Easy Does It in game 1 of their best-of-3 games semifinal series. Another win by Summer Fever would have put them in the finals, while a win by Easy Does It would have led to a decisive game 3. Excellence had defeated Berlan in their quarterfinal playoff, to claim a spot in the other best-of-3 semifinal series against Brilliant, which began with their game 1 this past Saturday.

Obviously peeved by the situation in the sport he loves, our initial query had prompted Sir Pete to concede only that: “Excellence over Brilliant. Summer Fever and Easy Does It might reach Protest Board. I just don’t want to discuss that game, period; my reason for leaving has a lot to do with it.”

Thurs. June 29, 2017–But as the emotional wounds, began to heal, we managed to prevail upon our voluntary cricket correspondent to soften his stance and provide the following additional details:

“Excellence won, 95-94, with 4 spare wickets. For Brilliant, Gilbert Reynolds scored 29, and his brother Calbert, 22. Andrew Banner, Sr. took 3 wickets. For Excellence, Jonathan Benjamin had 41, and Orson Flowers took 6 wickets.

“In the other game, Easy Does It scored 148 runs. Summer Fever needed a few more runs, with 4 wickets yet to fall. For Easy Does It, Andrew Banner, Jr. scored 46, and Kenroy Reynolds took 3 wickets. For Summer Fever, Conway Young had 51, and Jeovanie Baizar, 44; Conway Young and Jermaine Baizar took 3 wickets each. This game is being protested by the Easy Does It club, because of irregularities allegedly committed by players of the Summer Fever team against the umpire two weekends ago, which were not cleared up before the game.”

Much thanks for your sterling contribution to the sport, Brother Peter Young. We hope that this “Last segment of Cricket Corner” may signal a turning point in cricket in the Valley, and perhaps be the “last segment” for this season only.)