Wheels & Wheels sponsors St Catherine CC

By Jermaine Lannaman Observer staff reporter
Sunday, March 02, 2003

Wheels and Wheels General Manager, Phillip Green (right), presents St Catherine Cricket Club President, Osmond Dann, with his company's sponsorhsip cheque for the upcoming 2003 cricket season.
Local automotive dealers, Wheels & Wheels Limited, are to invest in national Limited-Overs champions, St Catherine Cricket Club, for the upcoming 2003 cricket season.

Wheels & Wheels, which will outfit the Club's Senior League team and provide transportation and equipment for the new Super League cricket competition, signed off on a deal with the Old Harbour Road-based club earlier this year.

"Based on the fact that the Jamaica Cricket Association is moving towards a professional league atmosphere, Wheels & Wheels' intervention is timely and will assist us greatly . we are really grateful and happy that they have chosen to come on board," said newly-elected Club President, Osmond Dann, in an interview with the Observer.

A brainchild of Dann, who replaced immediate past President, Adolphus Bacchus last November when a new executive was elected, the sponsorship includes performance/incentive-based rewards and at the end of the season, an awards ceremony.
According to Dann, the sponsorship initiative is the first in a series of steps to re-develop and bring "professionalism" to the club.
Winners of the Capital & Credit Merchant Bank Limited Overs title last year, St Catherine has for decades been one of the nation's top cricket clubs.

They boast national titles at virtually every levels and have produced a number of national and West Indies players in recent years.
Twenty-year-old fastbowler, Jermaine Lawson, who is a part of the West Indies World Cup squad in South Africa, is one such player.
Like most cricket clubs in Jamaica,the St Catherine cricket club has suffered from a lack of funds which means that very little development takes place in terms of infrastructure and events, and it is with this in mind that Dann says he is leading the charge for change.

Businessman Dann believes if the club is to tap in on the "enormous amount of talent that abounds in the parish" much has to be changed in the management of the club. He argued that in order to generate income and operate effectively, greater effort would be needed to recruit new members - including women.
He identified fund-raising ventures, the attraction of business support, participation in sports other than cricket and most importantly, securing Chedwin Park as a "home" as high-priority areas.

"We hope to find ourselves in a position where we can work out something with the sugar people (Bernard Lodge Sugar Estate, which owns the ground), either by working through the owners of the property or through the government.
" We might not be able to buy Chedwin Park but certainly we would like to have a document that says we have a (long term) lease. That would allow us to generate some sort of income, to make a number of physical changes to the venue like putting up billboards, and provide a "club" life for our members," Dann said.

With the 2007 World Cup, to be hosted by the West Indies, a mere four years away, Dann is hoping St Catherine will be able to host at least one match.
" A long term plan ... is to try and seek funds to the tune of about $10 million to do some refurbishing to the club so as to make a claim for at least one game at the 2007 World Cup," he said.
In the drive to increase membership, Dann says he plans to implement a discount programme involving a number of business places within the St Catherine community.

Plans are also afoot to put in place additional concrete practice strips for cricket training at Chedwin Park. The Club also hopes to adopt the neighbouring and recently-constructed Innswood High School and help in its cricket and infrastructural development. Innswood, which is chaired by Bacchus, at present utilises the club's venue for its home games.
The new St Catherine executive, led by Dann, includes first vice-president, Sydney Gapour; second vice-president, Randy Nelson; third vice-president, Winston Lewis; secretary, Arlie Dyer; treasurer, Robert Bacchus; assistant secretary, Courtney Francis and board members, Ephrain McLeod, Ransford Evans, Solomon Brown, Renford Pinnock Snr and Marc Nelson.