Caught Behind the Mic w/Yannick Leonard Episode 7: Dr Timothy Hodge

Anguilla's cricket is in crisis, but President Timothy Hodge is leading a determined push to revive the sport from the ground up. Despite losing its main cricket facility to a hurricane and lacking consistent match play for over five years, Hodge reveals a bold strategic plan focused on youth and female cricket, curriculum integration, and new playing fields. The core challenge isn't talent—it's infrastructure. With only one active ground and no ongoing tournaments, players lack match readiness, a gap that showed clearly during the Leeward Islands tournament. Hodge’s solution? A multi-pronged approach combining government action, corporate sponsorship, and community fundraising—like a vehicle raffle and bingo night—while pushing for the government to use .ai funds to purchase the Blowing Point playing field. The vision is ambitious: weekly cricket on Repsters Park, hosting the Cool & Smooth T20 tournament in Anguilla, and building a pipeline from primary school to West Indies representation. The key insight? Talent is already there—Anguilla won the inaugural T20 tournament and beat Antigua twice on their soil—but without facilities, development stalls. The real breakthrough won’t come from funding alone, but from creating a culture where cricket is played regularly, visibly, and sustainably.