By Marlon Monroe
The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has revealed that it spent $139 million on sport development during 2009 and will be partnering with an undisclosed technical consultant on a short term basis to complete the much talked about National Sports Policy. Sport Minister Dr. Frank Anthony told media operatives on Friday at his year end press conference that the National Sports Policy should be completed by the first quarter of the new year with the help of their technical consultant.
Dr. Anthony said that the strategic plan for sports will have programmes that will cater to the establishment of a fund to facilitate training for elite athletes and the implementation of a long-term athletic development programme which was not included in previous drafts.
“It is not going to be when this plan is launched that we will have millions of dollars to be put into this programme; it is going to be a work that is in progress and we are going to develop it as we go. These elite athlete programmes are some of the most expensive programmes to maintain,” the minister lamented.
Dr. Anthony said he envisioned that if there were partnerships with more established overseas programmes there was the possibility that some the nation’s top athletes could be afforded a chance in these programmes.
The ministry has made amendments five times to the draft of the document in an effort to strengthen a number of areas that were not included in previous drafts.
There have been many deadlines set and not met for the completion of the policy with last one being September last.
On the other hand, Minister Anthony noted at the press briefing that $90 million out of the budgeted $139 million for sport development aided in training personnel to become accredited coaches and also to push for the “improvement of sport at the community level.”
Dr Anthony along with the Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, spoke glowingly of the ministry’s Days of Interaction programme which has been held in different regions across Guyana.
It is the belief of the ministry that these events have helped to unite persons through sports and aid in the development of sports.
Media operatives were also told on Friday that the ministry, in the new year, intends to set up its own data base for the country’s athletes because the ministry’s “common problem is to determine who is an athlete from who is not an athlete.”
“Everyday, this ministry would receive a number of requests, sometimes from clubs, going through no formal structure asking us for tax waivers to send someone abroad. Sometimes we do not have any information on these people and it is usually not provided to us so why should we invest in sending that person if we don’t know whether he/she makes the qualifying times; so that is one basic thing,” Dr. Anthony explained.
However, when Dr. Anthony was asked how these athletes would benefit from such an initiative he said that… “Should persons be identified with talent the ministry will see what programmes are available.”
He also said that at the moment the ministry had not yet established what programmes are available for athletes but would like to head in that direction.
The minister also informed the media that there have been consultations with Cricket USA to have the introduction of Twenty20 cricket in schools.
Asked whether this was the wisest initiative for the schools programme given the low state of cricket in the country, Dr. Anthony said that he was informed that the ministry’s clinic, which was launched last year, had players who went on to play cricket for Guyana at various levels.
“Guyana has been chosen as the first country within the Caribbean to work with. Twenty/20 is just one of the initiatives but we are not compromising proper cricketing development,” he pointed out.
Kumar argued that the standard of cricket was not low in the country and pointed out that four Guyanese players are in the West Indies team and that the under-15 schools’ cricket final was being played that same day at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground.
