The recent disclosure that OUR 2012 Olympics hopefuls now have no choice but to travel overseas to access proper training facilities and a more competitive warm up environment must surely be one of the least auspicious moments in the political career of Sports Minister Frank Anthony. Not that it is a matter of heaping all of the blame at Dr. Anthony’s since we have been talking about the problem of official indifference to sports even before the current Minister was born. Still, Frank, you are the man in the hot seat now and we need some answers.
We have some questions for you, Mr. Minister. Here goes.
QUESTION ONE: Can you tell us why, year in, year out, decade in, decade out, our athletes have had to make do with the pasture conditions for training and competition that exist nowhere else in the Caribbean and why, that circumstance notwithstanding, it appears that they are expected to keep the Guyana flag flying in international competition?
QUESTION TWO: Is Guyana’s significant participation in international sport to be forever confined to the Inter Guiana Games?
QUESTION THREE: In which century is Guyana likely to create an enabling environment for our national athletes that includes physical facilities; coaches; equipment and the kind of national recognition that precludes our best athletes from becoming afflicted with what one might call a begging bowl syndrome – that is, having to run around begging for a dollar here and a dollar there in order to participate in overseas competition?
QUESTION FOUR: What exactly do the National Sports Development Council and Neil Kumar do for Sports……..in real terms, that is?
QUESTION FIVE:: Should the Sports Ministry not be bothering more about the fact that our athletes have to take themselves off to Trinidad….or wherever ELSE………to avoid the grass-infested swamps that we call athletics tracks in order to try to make the qualifying time for London 2012, rather than immersing itself in the politics of cricket when it is clear that the matter of the athletes is a much more important one?
QUESTION SIX: Could we not have put the money that is being used to finance the government’s intervention in the Cricket Board matter to help fund the preparation of our London 2012 athletes?
QUESTION SEVEN: Is it reasonable to believe that after we have put our athletes ‘through the wars’ – so to speak to satisfy their desire to compete in London that they are likely to make the qualifying times………far less compete at the London Games?
No offence meant, Minister. We know that you might have preferred to have President Ramotar change your portfolio but what is done is done. And you may well run with it. Funny enough we believe that there really is a future for you in the PPP setup; so do us a favour and ensure that we erect at least one proper athletics stadium under your watch and let’s get a few qualified coaches trained in the various disciplines; and let’s have you talking to your Cabinet Colleague about raising the level of the Annual School Sports and the Teachers Union above what is sometimes one big bacchanal; that would be as good a place as any to start. And by the way couldn’t the NSC be given a bit more to do than “organize” the Inter Guiana Games.
It really is about time that we in Guyana catch a piece of this global sports tourism action. It’s big dollars and even some tiny Caribbean islands cashing in on it while our biggest agenda item is WHO RUNS THE CRICKET BOARD!
Now the Government of Guyana might well argue that the money in the state kitty is not enough to go around. Sorry we don’t buy that………..not when we think about how much we spent on the Skeldon Sugar Plant Project and what we are actually getting for it; or how much has been shelled out on the Amaila Falls Project only to see ‘Fip’ get fired ahead of its conclusion; and its not as if there is lack of space. Any big enough cow pasture will do as long as we are prepared to put in the work to make it ready.
The truth of the matter is that sports really doesn’t rank too high on the government’s list of priorities. It never has. School sports is really the big ting here and once you have the boom boxes and the sno kone carts nothing else really matters. We marvel at the manner in which other countries use sports to build their national profiles but we give little thought to how they get there.
As for the Olympics one has to wonder when a Gold Medal for Guyana will see the light of day. Oh well! As the saying goes; One day! One day!