Hearse praises Latter's legacy

THE island side could benefit greatly from the changes made last night to local cricket. The Guernsey Cricket Association member clubs gave their backing to the committee's proposal to transform the traditional Evening League into a Twenty20-style format competition and also a pool/knockout tournament sandwiching it in each division.

Island manager Dave Hearse was quick to express his support for the restructure, particularly because of the way the short version of the game was growing on the international stage.

'Players enjoy it, spectators love it and it plays an important part in the way cricket is evolving,' he said.

'We may be invited to some associate competitions or European ones in the near future and we have got to get used to posting and chasing totals in that form of the game.

Hearse joined those clubs represented at the Cobo Bay Hotel in praising the work of GCA president Mark Latter in putting the proposals together.

'The clubs do appreciate the huge amount of work he puts in,' said the island manager.

Latter had prepared himself for a slightly more stressful evening. As it turned out, the proposals went through 14-2, with both those against votes coming by proxy.

He laughed at suggestions that this could be seen as his legacy as GCA president.

'The easiest thing to do is do nothing, but if you take on responsibility as a committee, then you have a duty to carry it out,' Latter said.

'You see issues in other sports all the time - things move on -?and you need to put things before clubs so that at least down the line you can say you always tried.

'In the last few years we appear to be in tune with the clubs. With communication options the way they are now, especially with email, there is a regular contact between us as a committee and the clubs and it certainly helps. We are clearly doing something right.