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It's absolutely necessary to give positive support for the players in the Piton Malta Herman Griffith Primary Schools cricket competition.

It is vital at this stage, I think, to create the correct psyche in players so young because the environment in which they learn their trade is crucial in their overall development.

After all, what's learnt in the cradle lasts forever. An incident I saw at the Lumber Company ground last week has convinced me even more that youngsters do indeed need the right kind of guidance to help them to blossom.

I couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams that a teacher would pull his players off the field, thereby causing the game to end prematurely.

It happened at approximately 12:05 p.m., much to the dismay of supporters of both Holy Innocents and Lawrence T. Gay.

At that stage the Lawrence T. Gay batsmen were beating the stuffings out of their opponents attack . . . 156/3 was the clearest indication that they were the superior team.

With 20.4 overs bowled, lo and behold the teacher called his players off the field, engaged in heated discussion with the groundsman and Lawrence T. Gay officials. Soon after, the team bus arrived and took the players away. It left a sour taste in everyone's mouth.

The problem? Would you believe that after allowing so many overs to be bowled the teacher apparently suddenly realised that the pitch was too long?

Admittedly, they were playing on a full-length pitch when in fact it should've been 18 yards according to competition regulations instead of the conventional 22 yards.

The adjustment was made taking into account the age and size of the players.

If the teacher raised the question about the length of the pitch as an issue, he was certainly within his rights, but the question remains: why didn't he identify the discrepancy from the start or even well before the 20.4 overs were delivered?

What made matters even worse was the crude way in which the issue was handled. You just can't instruct 11 youngsters to leave the field just like that.

In any event, if the game had been played to its logical conclusion, it means that neither side would have been disadvantaged because they would have played under the same conditions.

Not only that, it would have been in order to play the game and then send in a letter of protest to the National Sports Council who would in turn make a ruling on the outcome.

It was to the credit of the L. T. Gay management that they tried their very best to have the matter resolved in a civil way but the other side would have none of it.

And we wonder "how the youth get so"? I know that we know.

© The Barbados Nation