For the second time in two months, national youth cricket teams have departed these shores for regional competitions grossly underprepared.
Late last month the national Under-17 cricket team was encamped briefly at the Chetram Singh Centre of Excellence and had limited preparation before its participation in the West Indies youth championships which ended earlier this month.
Not surprisingly, the team placed a disappointing second to last with 15 and one half points only ahead of the Leeward Islands, last with four and one half points.
Yesterday Stabroek Sport reported that the Regional Under-15 tournament is set to bowl off today in St Kitts.
We subsequently learnt that the national U-15 team had already departed Guyana and will play their opening game of the two-day competition against the Windward Islands at Conaree today and tomorrow.
One is not sure what kind of preparation the team had prior to its departure for St. Kitts but it is understood that the team is being managed by Virendra Chintamani of Essequibo and coached by Garvin Nedd, the former Guyana U-19 and senior off-spinner.
The composition of the team is also cloudy but it was reported that no player from Berbice has been included simply because of the refusal of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) to make its players available for what passed as trials for selection, mainly two matches at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) and Wales grounds during the period when a Court injunction was not in force.
All of this of course stems from the impasse between the government implemented Interim Management Committee (IMC) and the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
At present there is an injunction which restrains members of the GCB from acting in any official capacity and this could be the main reason why a shroud of secrecy surrounds the selection and subsequent participation of the national U-17 and U-15 teams.
Who exactly are the persons responsible for ensuring that national cricket teams continue to participate in the West Indies Cricket Board’s regional tournaments?
Clearly it is not the IMC since there has been no restrictions levied against the IMC by the Court and the WICB has made it clear that they recognize the GCB and not the IMC.
The fact of the matter is that the entire situation has degenerated into an unwholesome mess and a solution to this almost year-old problem is nowhere on the horizon.
National teams should not be allowed to participate in regional tournaments under these conditions. It shows just how much those responsible for sports in Guyana care about the performance of our national teams. It seems as if we just want to be represented. We have no pride whatsoever. No honour. Playing for Guyana is now a big joke. It is all fun and games, an opportunity to make a tour, use the foreign exchange to buy the latest digital equipment (iPhones and iPads) and come back home and show off. Winning is no longer in the equation.
Small wonder that the national netball team competing in the Americas Federation of Netball Associations tournament in Trinidad and Tobago is constantly being embarrassed.
Beaten 105-10 against Trinidad in their opening game and 17-85 against St Lucia, the Guyanese lasses suffered the indignity of a third mauling going under 8-124 to Jamaica on Monday. One is not sure if the girls are playing their hearts out and are being outclassed or whether the fact that they have not had adequate preparation is responsible for their poor showing
To be fair to the girls, though, it is their first time at the tournament and they are coming up against some of the best teams in the world, including Trinidad which shared first place at the 1979 World Netball Championships along with New Zealand and Australia while Jamaica has placed third at the quadrennial tournament on three occasions.
Two more national teams are due to leave Guyana this week and both would have had better preparation and so better results are to be expected. The Guyana Junior Squash team will depart this morning to defend the title they won last year while the Pre-cadet and cadet players of the Guyana Table Tennis Association will depart on Friday for Jamaica to participate in the seventh such tournament.
In the case of squash, the junior squash teams have ruled the roost at the Caribbean level and one expects a similar showing this time. Last year when the tournament was played in Guyana, they excelled.
A question mark surrounds the performance of the table tennis team. A number of the players were part of the male team which won a gold medal in the team events at the Under-10 level a few years ago at least but those players have moved up to the 13 years-and-under category and it will be interesting to see how they acquit themselves.
Preparation the key
One of the major reasons why sports teams do not do so well is the fact that there is no proper preparation and planning. It should be stipulated that all national sports teams be encamped prior to participation in regional tournaments and there should be a fully staffed venue with dormitories, a gym, a conference room and the like for use by the respective national teams.
There should be a panel of coaches under a head coach and once the team is assembled there should be goals set and constant evaluation of the training sessions.
Physical training should be done under the supervision of qualified physical fitness trainers and the coaches and in some cases should be tailored to the specific needs of the individual athletes.
The coaches should work on the technical and tactical preparation and there should also be mental preparation involving the use of visualization techniques aimed at making the athlete more confident.
Curfews while training and on tour should be strictly adhered to as proper rest and nutrition are important ingredients in the moulding of successful athletes. Too many athletes ignore the fact that sleeping early and eating properly are factors that are necessary to becoming a success in their respective disciplines.
Coaching too is very important. The sports scene in Guyana is filled with persons who masquerade as coaches when they are simply square pegs in round holes. Knowledge is the key. Sports coaches should have the knowledge from personal experience as well as from attending modern coaching courses and programmes to enable them to lend their expertise to their charges. At the very least they should have some degree of proficiency in the sport that they are coaching so that they must be able to “show, tell and let the athlete do.”
Finally there is an old Guyanese saying that it is “Not every time that tincup knock you must go ah dance.”
This simply means that it is not every regional or international tournament that is out there that national sports teams should attend.
Sometimes it is better that the teams try to raise the level of their game before attempting to compete. It is a pity that so little is being heard of the National Sports Policy which is reported to have been completed.
The National Sports Policy, buttressed by supportive budgets for respective disciplines, should trigger the development of sports in Guyana, moving it from its current state of underdevelopment to one where some modicum of pride is restored.
