Former West Indies youth captain Zaheer Ali is making a call for quality leaders to take rescue the game in the Caribbean.
Ali made his comments recently when the Zaheer Ali Foundation facilitated a Leadership Seminar titled: Shaping & Moulding our Future Leaders for cricketers and cricket officials at the National Cricket Centre (NCC) in Balmain Couva.
The founder foundation Zaheer Ali, a former T&T senior cricketer, who has been engaged in discussions with the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) Executive and Youth Development Committee, strongly believes that it is important that stakeholders recognise that at regional and national levels there is a need to invest in the cohort of quality and competent leaders.
According to Ali: “It is therefore imperative that we adopt measures that will seek to achieve this objective in an attempt to ensure the future success of our regional and national teams but more importantly, to pave the way for succession planning. We must make certain that our leadership capacity is sufficiently developed to meet our future leadership requirement.
“Therefore, the foundation has tailored a high performance leadership seminar titled Shaping & Moulding our Future Leaders: A Proactive Approach geared towards developing and improving our young cricketers from a leadership perspective. The proposed seminar would mainly focus on the components and importance of effective leadership and the attributes of a successful leader.”
Ali, who is also the holder a Bachelor of Laws Degree with honours from the University of London and a serving member of the T&T Police Service, attached to one of the specialist crime units, further recognises that in light of the challenges the nation faces, where the youths are concerned, such an approach would not only develop them as leaders in the field of cricket but as individuals who would possess the necessary skills and knowledge to lead in other aspects of life.
“In addition, this approach would focus on the overall development of our cricketers making them not only potential ambassadors of the TTCB but well-rounded citizens of our nation. The foundation also views this as an opportunity to collaborate with the TTCB and other stakeholders to proactively develop and execute strategies that would assist and contribute towards building our human and social capital of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Ali commended the president and executive of the TTCB for recognising the significance of such a seminar following the discussions. He acknowledges and compliments the leadership of Azim Bassarath who he said has demonstrated a willingness to accommodate suggestions and recommendations that would enhance the development of cricket not only at a national level but West Indies level.
Further, Zaheer indicated that Dr Allan Sammy and Tarandath Sammy, both of whom are directly entrusted with the responsibility for the development of our cricketers, have adopted the right approach and exhibits the right attitude that is required for development.
Ali ended by stressing that the foundation is committed to youth and community development in T&T and would continue to explore avenues in order to achieve this mission.