Stabroek Sport recently caught up with President of the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) Ronald Burch-Smith after one of the matches he played during the Farfan and Mendes Senior Team Tournament.
An attorney-at-law, 29-year-old Burch-Smith was elected to office in 2006 on his return to Guyana after completing his Masters Degree in International Trade Policy at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
In the following interview by Kiev Chesney, Burch-Smith talks of accountability, his vision for the sport and debunks the view that the game is a `high-society’ sport.
SS: What motivated you to take up the office of GSA president?
Burch-Smith: “I have been around squash for most of my life. I started playing at the age of 10 and, apart from my continuous involvement in the sport, I also did a few coaching programmes. I saw my appointment as GSA president as another opportunity for me to give back to the game that I love. ”
SS: What is your vision for the GSA?
Burch-Smith: “Squash has always had a history of being very well-run from the administrative standpoint and it was basically my intention to maintain this stand-ard….Apart from that, I had aimed for the GSA to get its own facility because that is a problem that we have been faced with.
“Like most sports, squash is very expensive to play at a high level but squash is particularly expensive because of the problem of facilities and infrastructure, because you can’t play squash at all, unless you have courts.”
SS: What has become of that vision?
Burch-Smith: “After we hosted the Southern Caribbean Championships in 2004, we pushed to get the plans done for a court but an affordable architect was hard to come by at that moment with the construction of the National Stadium for World Cup.
We were able to get an architect and then we sent the plans to [President Bharrat Jagdeo] but the first meeting did not come off because [he] had to go away on short notice to attend a conference.
“Since then we haven’t been able to gain audience with him but we are hoping to gain his attention when we host the 20th Southern Caribbean Championships in August this year.”
SS: During your three-year term what has the GSA done to change the perception that squash is just a ‘high society’ sport?
Burch-Smith: “I don’t agree that it is a game for the high society. Our junior programme is open to everyone and it is affordable to everyone, but access to facilities is limited and we can do something about that as an association.”
But have there been efforts to broaden the talent base by targeting schools and other possible talent pools? It is not as if we have a public facility like some of the other sports.
“The Georgetown Club allows us to use their facility on Saturdays for the junior programme; it’s not a public facility so we only have limited time. Now if we were to expand on the number of players, we would have to split the time that has been granted to us and it is not feasible for players to have, let’s say half an hour to train each week.”
SS: Tell us a little about the current executive body, how it functions…
Burch-Smith: “Most of the members of GSA have been associated with squash for most of their lives; our Treasurer Garfield Wilshire played the game as well as some of or coaches and key personalities such as Robert (Fernandes) and Tiffany Solomon.”
SS: What about accountability and fundraising activities?
Burch-Smith: “Like most sport organization, we have encountered problems generating funds for our organization but over time, we managed to get the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) on board and they have helped us tremendously along with Ansa Mcal and Banks DIH Ltd.
“As far as accountability is concerned, I can safely say that all our members are serving because they love the sport and want to see it go somewhere rather than try to benefit from it. All fundraising goes directly to coaching and tournaments, serving members volunteer their services.
“That is one of the main reasons why we have a successful association, and the other is our National Coach Carl Ince, who is probably the most qualified coach in the Caribbean.
“We are also thankful for the financial assistance that we have received from the Guyana Olympic Association and the assistance that we have gotten from the National Sports Commission during the time I served as president.”
